Stung
by Miratete
Summary: Chapter 11: "The Captain Returns" posted! Jazz phones home. Carly and Bumblebee go sightseeing again. A familiar face returns to Hax Horobis and gets Carly a new job, besides taking her and Bumblebee out on a special trip with some of his crew. A sweet and fluffy chapter.
1. Saying Goodbye

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 1: Saying Goodbye**

-o-o-o-o-o-

Bumblebee woke to the feeling of fingers on his faceplate and found Smokescreen half atop him staring into his optics, blue meeting blue. "Good morning, bright one," Smokescreen crooned and leaned forward to place a kiss onto the minibot's forehead. "Did I allow you enough recharge time?"

Bumblebee cracked a smile. "You did, but then _he_ showed up."

"I didn't invite him. Did you?" queried Smokescreen, reapplying the kiss as if the mention of _him_ would dull it..

"Not I."

"Not that I minded," the larger bot purred. Jealousy was not a common trait in Cybertronian personalities, and those who suffered from it tended to keep to like-minded sorts. "It seems everything I've heard about him is true. I just don't know how you could keep up with him though." Smokescreen ran his hand down Bumblebee's yellow plating and teased the seam between his windshield and chest panel, but on getting little reaction, he slipped his hand down further. He'd only begun taking the little yellow mech to his berth at the beginning of the summer, and being only August he was still learning where best to touch him and how best to please him.

"Minibot efficiency. We can go twice as far on a full tank."

"So I see." Smokescreen's stroking continued down to where the bot's chest met his waist articulation. This definitely got a reaction. And when he pushed his hand beneath the chest panel's underplating, his digits shoving into the cables that connected Bumblebee's alt-mode dashboard to the rest of him, it received a strong one. Bumblebee cried out in pleasure as his back arched, flinging his arms out to the sides.

One of those arms hit Cliffjumper, lying in recharge next to them. Cliffjumper shrieked at the sudden strike and rolled off of the berth, his pistol flashing out ready to defend himself against a Decepticon attack.

For a few astroseconds the two others blinked at him, and then broke into fits of giggles. "Note to self. Do not wake C.J. suddenly," Smokescreen grinned.

Cliffjumper, on-lining fully and coming to realize what must have happened, re-holstered his weapon. "You know, you can wake me with a kiss instead of a slap," he grouched, hopping back up onto the padded berth in Smokescreen's quarters. He settled again with a harrumph, lying on his side with his head turned toward the other two. His optics blinked off, and then on again. "So I hear you're off to Cybertron for a while," he said with his optics on the yellow bot.

"I am. Team of seven. Going to get more Cybertonium to keep on hand. Carly and Spike are leading since they went before."

"That's why I invited Bumblebee over...to say a proper goodbye," Smokescreen explained.

"Since when have _you_ ever said a proper goodbye?" Cliffjumper teased. "And hey, is Huffer on the mission? I noticed Wheeljack fitting him with a trailer...what, two days ago?"

"Yep. He and Skids will be our primary transports once we've found what we need."

"Excellent. And when do you leave?"

"We're reporting to the space bridge at ten. Departure at ten-fifteen."

Cliffjumper checked his chronometer. "Well then...still plenty of time for me to say a proper goodbye," he said, wriggling across the berth toward Bumblebee, but giving Smokescreen a saucy look at the appropriation of his words.

"Didn't you last night?" Smokescreen started to settle himself possessively atop the minibot. While he didn't mind sharing, he wasn't about to let Cliffjumper and his boundless enthusiasm upstage him again.

"That was a proper hello," he grinned and started to wedge himself between the two others, actually managing to lever Smokescreen off-balance, where he fumbled and ended up on the floor. Cliffjumper immediately took his place atop the yellow mech. From the deck panels Smokescreen cursed and made threats should one of his doorwings be bent or a hinge strained.

Bumblebee kissed him good morning, enjoying the enthusiastic attentions of his fellow minibot. They'd been hooking up off and on for quite some time, both on Earth and back on Cybertron, and so he knew Cliffjumper quite well, both on the battlefield and in the berthroom. Those rising surges in the red mech's energy field told him that it wouldn't be long before the three of them were back at it again, a tangle of need and passion.

It was a wonderful way to start a mission.

-o-o-o-o-o-

We ready to roll?" asked Jazz of the others on the team as they did a quick check outside of the ring of the space bridge. The two jets that had opposed their borrowing the space bridge had been quickly dealt with.

"Ready!" came back six other voices. Brawn gave the off-lined Dirge a kick for spite before transforming. Carly hopped into Bumblebee and Spike into Huffer, who was in closest proximity to him after the brief tangle.

Jazz dove into his transformation and rolled for the open door of the space bridge, the other five Autobots following. The door of the teleport ring closed behind them.

"Ready here," came Wheeljack's voice over the comlink from headquarters.

"Hit it!" was the response.

Wheeljack nodded to Chip Chase, who pulled the activator switch and the whirling light of the space bridge rose, engulfing the seven passengers. Quickly they were dissolved into energy signatures and flung across the nothingness toward Cybertron.

The engineer's sensor wings twitched. "Did you see that?" Wheeljack asked Chip on seeing that the passengers had departed successfully.

"See what?"

"That flicker on the controls. Just as you activated the bridge." He tapped the board in front of Chip with a finger.

"I was watching the viewscreen," he said.

"I don't think it was much, but there was something," he said, checking his memory recording.

"Probably just a power surge or stutter as the bridge control pulled more current. Nothing to worry about, I'm sure," Chip decided. All of the readings indicated that the bridge's operation was normal.

-o-o-o-o-o-

As the light of the rematerialization process faded, Carly immediately suspected something was wrong. And seeing only Bumblebee beside her, she knew that something had gone horribly wrong. Jazz, Spike, Skids, Brawn, and Huffer were nowhere to be seen. And normally there would be a space bridge structure there to receive them. But there was only a flat expanse of nearly barren land.

"What the..." Bumblebee gasped and transformed back to his root form.

"This doesn't look right," was Carly's appraisal of the situation.

Instead just she and Bumblebee stood on a dusty desert plain, the ground a litter of gravel broken by shallow washes and occasional out of place boulders. The horizon was a bumpy line dividing pale beige mesas from a cloudless sky of an uncomfortable blue-green color. Plant life was sparse, just dry-looking grass and a few scraggly shrubs, and one bushy thing that appeared to be a mass of dead vines sprouting tiny linear leaves.

"This isn't Cybertron," said Bumblebee, beating her to voicing the thought by only a second.

"No...not at least anywhere I've been on Cybertron."

"It isn't. There's nowhere like this on Cybertron. We're somewhere else. Somewhere else entirely."

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Stung continues in Chapter 2: Hax Horobis**

Skids finds himself separated from the others, and Bumblebee and Carly are attacked in the desert. A promise made to Spike comes to light.

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


	2. Hax Horobis

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 2: Hax Horobis**

-o-o-o-o-o-

Trees? There weren't trees on Cybertron. There were trees on plenty of other planets, but not on Cybertron.

Sensors spinning, Skids stared at the dense purplish-green jungle rising up around him. There was a muddy track through the greenery, an oppressive humidity in the air, and strange noises about. Not animal noises, but perhaps mechanical. He couldn't quite tell. The radio silence was even more unnerving. Why weren't the other members of the team responding to his calls?

And then something whistled overhead, its tone changing as it went. And suddenly the bank of trees beside him exploded in fire and fury and a blast of broken wood. Skids was knocked to the damp ground. And then came shouts and screams, followed by another explosion, thankfully not quite as close. The Autobot buried his face into the thick undergrowth and brought his arms over his head as wet splinters of wood and clods of soil rained down.

It wasn't Cybertron, but it was a war zone just the same.

As the fallout subsided, he picked his head up just enough to look around, and spotting a low area not too far away, he crawled for it and rolled himself in, hoping it wasn't too muddy or full of water. Thankfully it was only filled with moss and more of the thick undergrowth.

More shouts tumbled through the jungle, and at that point he saw two dark figures—two mechs his size—emerge from the trees and stalk along the track, rifle-type weapons in hand. He reached for his own weapon, a twin electron blaster, and drew it out. Cautiously he watched the pair, straining to make out their insignia, but could not see any, unless the white seven-pointed stars each wore served as such. The shorter mech had one at the center of his chest and the other's was spread across a thigh panel. At least they weren't Decepticons. But who were they?

A loud shriek broke the heavy silence and something landed hard on his arm and back, forcing his weapon and body flat to the ground. He turned his head, but before he could get a glimpse, he was hauled to his feet and held by two pairs of arms while a third person held the nose of a rifle at his head. He'd been captured by more of the same dark blue mechs.

And then he realized that the rifle bearer was a femme...and an attractive one at that.

She whistled at him with an intonation of demanding, questioning him in a language he did not know or even recognize for that matter. When he didn't answer she shoved the rifle right against his cheek and asked again.

"I'm sorry. I don't understand what you're asking," he apologized in Cybertronian, shrugging his shoulders and trying to look helpless. And he tried not to stare at her. It had been so long since he'd laid eyes on a femme, let alone one as exquisitely beautiful as she was. She was encased by heavy navy-blue plating decorated only with a few sunshine-yellow stripes. The same white star the others wore curled over one hip. Her plating was intimidatingly spiky at the edges and did not give any hint of an alternate mode. Contrastingly, her deep black sub-plating was smooth and enticingly curved. Her golden optics had actual shutters over them and her silver face...who wouldn't fall for a face like that?

When he glanced at his other two captors, he found them to be a mech and a second femme, both as impressively attractive as the one with the rifle. The femme was equally lovely, while the mech's features were stronger and more expressively sculpted. Both also had golden optics.

The femme with the rifle whistled at him again, definitely asking a question of him as told by her tone. She lowered her weapon a notch and peered at the red Autobot insignia emblazoned on his chest. The other two leaned forward a bit to see what she was addressing.

"I'm sorry," Skids pleaded again. "I can't understand your language."

She tried again, and this time she used a different language—one he knew. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" she asked in Pelagic.

All Autobots knew Pelagic. It was the closest thing to a universal language that the space-farers had come up with—the language of those that wandered the stars. "My name is Skids...and I'm not sure what I'm doing here, or even where I am for that matter. I just sortof...arrived."

Pleased at being able to communicate, but still on the offensive, she tapped his Autobot symbol roughly with the nose of the rifle. "What symbol is this? Whose side are you on?" she demanded.

Skids looked about at the five robots surrounding him. The two he'd first seen had come over to assist the others with their prisoner. There was no sign that they were Decepticons or even Decepticon sympathizers. One more test though... "It's from Cybertron."

There followed only puzzled looks and glances at each other. "You know, Cybertron? Primus' greatest creation?"

Again the same bewildered result. They were looking at each other to see if any of them had some idea what their prisoner was talking about.

Skids vented a sigh of relief. Perhaps he wasn't a friend here, wherever here was, but at least he wasn't a foe. Looking at the five soldiers standing about him, he was truly thankful that at least they weren't Decepticons.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Carly walked over to a boulder and leapt up onto it to get a better look at the surroundings. "I think the bridge took us to New Mexico or something. Maybe Arizona. Look at this place."

Bumblebee was trying his communications system, but the constant static was not encouraging.

"Well?" Carly prompted, seeing what he was doing. And she wasn't liking the odd crook to his mouth, the expression he wore when something was worrying him.

"I can't contact the others."

"Have you tried the base frequencies?"

"Doing it now."

"It's got to be Earth. Well, maybe. The air seems the same, though the sky..." She fixed her eyes on the blue-green welkin once again. "The sky seems... weird." She hopped down from the boulder and began to climb a nearby hill. And from the slope she found the same emptiness around her, though a few tracks, distinctly vehicular in origin, lay across the dusty plain. This was hopeful. "Do you think it's sunrise or sunset?" she asked looking at the horizon, where the sun hung a mere twenty degrees or so above it. She looked at her wrist. "It's ten-thirty according to my watch."

"My chronometer says the same."

"So then why is the sun so low?"

The Autobot looked about and couldn't decide. So he tried his navigational systems. He'd been equipped with a rather unsophisticated directional unit, barely a step above a standard GPS like the one Carly had in her car. And like a standard GPS, his also relied on having a satellite in orbit. Cosmos and Jetfire could have told him in moments where exactly they were in regards to this planet. And within minutes they could have told him where exactly in the known universe he stood. Instead he was clueless, not even knowing which direction the sun was moving in relation to them. He could probably magnetize something to form a compass, but all it would do would be to point to one of the planet's magnetic poles. And then they'd know which direction to travel if they wished to visit that pole...

Bumblebee tried his radio again, moving to other frequencies, and found signals, but not on any familiar channels or even in any reasonably familiar languages. But from them, he was able to ascertain there was a major transmission source about fifty miles away. He sat down and listened while Carly continued to climb the hill.

Most of the signals were weak, but they pointed clearly to local, low-level communication. There was a strong signal that played music and chatter in a language his translator refused to acknowledge. An even stronger one came up and it seemed to be a weather station broadcasting an infinite stream of temperatures and wind conditions...in Pelagian. And when the strongest signal came up, he recognized it in an instant. It was a spaceport traffic control channel. Putting the evidence together, he sighed with some relief. This planet was inhabited _and_ there was a land-based spaceport relatively nearby. They would be able to find out where they were and arrange for transport home.

He rose and went after Carly, walking up the hillside to where she stood nearly at the top. Her hands shaded her eyes. "See anything?" he asked as he approached.

"There was something bright in the sky out there," she said, pointing far into the distance. "But now it's gone. It looked sorta like an airplane catching the light."

"Well, it seems we're near a spaceport. I went through a wider range of radio signals and found some I could identify. One of them was a spaceport control tower. I probably heard them bringing in whatever you saw. It was in that direction."

"Any idea of where we are?"

"Somewhere they use Pelagian."

"Planet Pelagus, perhaps?"

Bumblebee chuckled. "There is no planet Pelagus. Pelagian was created as a common language for the space-faring races, to be used in politics and trade. It's one of the most common languages spoken in the known galaxy. In some places it's even displaced the native languages."

"Well that narrows it down," sighed Carly sarcastically. "And still no sign of the others?"

"Nope. If they were here we'd have heard from them already I expect. I tried to reach them immediately, and they would have too."

"I wonder if they're even on this planet."

"Chances are...well..." Bumblebee stopped. He had no idea. "I keep hoping they're just out of communications range."

-o-o-o-o-o-

They followed one of the tracks seen from the hillside, one which had more or less headed in the direction they wanted. The sun crawled slowly higher into the sky of the new planet, confirming that it was morning. And it was decided that this one had a much longer day than Earth did. The heat of the day was increasing as well, and sensors reported it to be 85° and rising. They discussed what might have happened to have sent them to this unknown planet, and where the others might have ended up. Mostly Carly worried about Spike. What if he'd been dropped somewhere that wouldn't support human life? She'd seen him jump into Huffer, the closest Autobot when they entered the space bridge. What if Spike had been deposited on Jupiter or on an asteroid or somewhere else that would kill him within minutes? They tried not to think about the potential tragic outcomes, but that possibility was very real.

After an hour of driving, Bumblebee pulled off to the side to take a break from traveling. Carly got out and stretched, enjoying a break from the rough, washboard-prone road. Bumblebee didn't have much for comfort regarding his alt-mode. It was what he'd been rebuilt with by a computer that never expected an alt-mode to actually be carrying passengers. Smooth, asphalted roads and glorious stretches of fresh concrete were fine, but long journeys or rough terrain got uncomfortable for a human riding inside.

Bumblebee transformed and stretched as well, taking in air that seemed to match Earth's very closely. Apart from the strange sky color and unidentifiable greenery, it did look like they'd been dropped outside of Barstow or Tucson. They were in a sandy dry wash that wandered across the plains, but in the shadow of a deep overhang there was a small pool of water. Carly moved toward the pool curiously, wondering if it would contain insects or tiny fish, but it appeared empty of all but algae. What did catch her attention were the numbers of tracks leading up to the pool. Clearly it was a watering hole for local fauna. She crouched down and peered at them, trying to determine what would make that sort of a print. They were like nothing she recognized.

And then she found out.

Carly was knocked to the ground as something pounced upon her, shoving her against the sand. She screeched as large scaly brown mandibles clamped around her arm and bit tightly, getting a good hold of her. As it began to drag her away, she got only the faintest glimpse of what had her, and as far as she could tell it was some sort of giant insect—one roughly the size of a horse.

"Hold as still as you can, Carly!" shouted Bumblebee, and she could hear him running toward her.

Fighting her instinct she forced herself to go limp. Bumblebee was probably trying to get a clear shot. And sure enough there was gunfire and the thing hauling her away hissed. Another shot and the creature released its grip on her arm. She fell roughly to the cobbled ground and it staggered away, stunned and worried for its life. Bumblebee kept his weaponry on its lowest setting, which was apparently enough to scare it into a retreat.

"Carly! Oh Primus! I'm glad I was here!" Bumblebee ran up and stood over her, brandishing the pistol in readiness should it turn and come back for her. But it didn't. The tan-colored thing disappeared quickly into the thicker bushes at the edge of the wash and was away.

The mech helped Carly to her feet and then knelt, poking out his knee for her to lean against. His hands took her arm and pushed her sleeve up, Carly turning away. She couldn't bear to look. All she'd seen were horrible beetle-like jaws clenched around her upper arm and lots of legs. There was a definite wet and dripping feeling and she feared the worst.

Bumblebee gently turned her arm back and forth in his hands, examining it. "I can't believe that it didn't break your skin," he said, calming somewhat.

For the first time she dared to look over at her arm, having been bracing herself to see blood and torn flesh. But the wet feeling was soon realized to be just water dripping off of her, and the pain was probably just serious pinching and bruising. She must have been knocked partly into the pool when it had jumped on her. The marks of the thing's mandibles were there, but there was no blood to be seen. "What was it?" she asked, her voice shaking to match her body. The adrenaline was surging through her system.

"I'm not sure. I've never seen anything like it. It seemed to be some sort of giant insect...thing. It had six legs and some sort of exoskeleton, or at least an armored hide. I didn't kill it, but I don't think it will be back. It was easy to shoot and definitely didn't like it."

Carly managed to find her footing and she gingerly massaged the painful arm. "I'm sure I'm going to have some awful bruises from this," she decided, pushing her sleeve back down.

"I guess we got lucky."

And then she looked up at the Autobot. "Thank you, 'Bee. You probably saved my life. It probably grabbed me for food, and here I am unarmed." She embraced him with her right arm, her uninjured one, and tried not to let the moment of terror get to her.

"You would have done the same thing if it had been me getting attacked. I know you would have."

"I wish I had a weapon. What if there are more of those things around?"

"You'll be safe if we're together. I'll look after you. I always told Spike that if anything ever happened to him, I would."

"You told him that?"

"Hey, he's my best friend. Of course I would, and I'd say this situation qualifies. He made me promise him, that if ever something were to happen to him, that I would take care of you. And I think this situation qualifies.""

She hugged him again. "Oh 'Bee. That's so sweet of you."

They stood for a moment holding each other. "Shall we?" the mech asked after a minute, putting away his blaster. They walked back to the road. Transforming again to his vehicular mode, Carly got in, fastened her seatbelt, and the pair set off once more.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Following the collection of alien radio signals, Bumblebee and Carly continued across the desert, neither really wanting to talk now about the worry that they were far from home, whether home was counted as Earth or Cybertron. Bumblebee tuned in his radio to the station he'd found earlier broadcasting music. They listened to it, Carly coming to the opinion that it was simply mariachi music played on Chinese instruments. And after a while of listening, suddenly Bumblebee gasped a startled "Look up! Overhead!"

Carly leaned forward and gazed up through Bumblebee's windshield. Above them, a huge spaceship was coming into view, moving in the same general direction they were. As its shadow rolled over they and the hot desert were granted a temporary respite from the baking sun by the shade of the massive thing. The temperature had climbed to 95° outside and the sun appeared to be only now reaching its zenith.

"I think it's heading for the same coordinates we are."

"I wonder if this is a good thing or a bad thing..." Carly worried.

"No way to tell, at least yet. I'd guess that it's just a cargo ship. It doesn't have the look or feel of a warship."

And after another another hour of travel, the passage of several more spaceships overhead, and the passage of some other wheeled vehicle heading in the opposite direction, the road approached the edge of the plateau the road had been crossing for some time. Bumblebee stopped at an overlook and Carly got out again.

Below them in a fairly flat valley, the great expanse of a major planet-side spaceport sprawled. Spread across the plain was a network of landing fields and platforms, passenger trains linking them all to a central hub, from which spilled a small city. Taking it in, Carly remarked that it appeared to be the interstellar equivalent of a highway exit featuring a major truck stop. Bumblebee, quite familiar with these places, had to agree.

And after enough staring, they continued along the road which soon began dropping down into the valley below.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"Can you read any of the signs?" Carly inquired. "Are they in Pelagian?"

The two were now inside the spaceport, staring at the long hallway lined with services and offices.

"Some of them," the robot answered, looking about slowly. "It seems we're at the spaceport of Hax Horobis."

"Any idea where that is?"

"I've never heard of it. Let me see if I can look it up."

Bumblebee moved to the side of the hallway and froze for a moment while he accessed his data banks, and then he let out a long sigh. "Well, like Spike always says, I've got some good news and some bad news."

"I'll take the bad news first."

"We're a long, long way from Earth. And Cybertron. I had no idea that a space bridge could send someone so far."

"Like how far?"

Bumblebee's optics darkened. "We're on the other side of the galactic center."

Carly bit her lip. "The other side? How is that even possible? Are we stuck here then?"

"Well that brings us to the good news. Hax Horobis is a major spaceport, so we should be able to find some transportation back to familiar space. It might take a while, but at least we aren't stranded here. It could be a lot worse."

"If we find a way to send a message home, couldn't Cosmos just come pick us up?"

Bumblebee wanted to laugh, but refrained. "Cosmos isn't much good outside of our local interstellar neighborhood. The stars you see in the night sky are pretty much his limit."

"Oh, I see," she said crestfallen. "So what next then? Start looking for a ride? See if we can find some way to contact the base? Send an interstellar telegram? I know your radio won't contact that far even with a power boost."

"Not even close. I suppose we could find a telegram office."

He looked about the businesses and after a bit of walking he spotted what he was looking for. There were places that, for a fee, would send messages and data files across the great emptiness of space. He went into the office and studied the board above where different rates and plans were offered. What he also noticed was that he did not recognize the currency symbol next to all the numbers. Inquiring with the clerk behind the counter, there came a dreadful revelation. His money was no good here. He had a good supply of credits to his name, and could tap into other Autobot accounts if need be, but here, without any connection to an established interstellar bank, he was penniless. Taking a brochure with him, he headed for the currency exchange office he'd noticed on the way in, and they only confirmed that he was penniless. He didn't even have any precious metals on him that he could exchange for currency.

Sighing, he headed for the information desk to see if there were any embassies or consuls in the city that might be able to help them. And the lack of such only confirmed that they were a long, long way from home.

Disheartened they sat on a bench in the spaceport, Carly leaning up against Bumblebee. And in time she fell asleep. Bumblebee held still so as not to disturb her. It had been a rough day, for both of them. When she woke in a couple of hours, he got out the cooler he had subspaced for her and Spike. From it she removed a sandwich, which she ate in silence.

"Well, I have a week's worth of food for two people and a few clothes. It's not much, but it could be worse. Who knows where Spike ended up, and even if he survived that, he probably doesn't have anything besides what was in his pack. Any chance you could send a telegram on some kind of credit?"

"I doubt it. I can ask. Though probably there's some police force we could ask to send one."

"That would be a good idea. I suppose someone around here might offer us a bit of charity given what's happened. These are civilized people."

-o-o-o-o-o-

They went out into the city, Bumblebee having tapped into the city directory. Thankfully it was mostly in Pelagian, but the large Taliseet population here made things a bit difficult. From what he could learn, the Taliseet were the first settlers on this desert planet some centuries ago, their reptilian bodies being suited to the dryness of the atmosphere and the extremes of the summer heat. It was their language and script that formed the bulk of what he couldn't understand or read.

The city was a fascinating place, built along three major roads which dodged two large arroyos that ran through the area. Near the spaceport, the businesses were mostly hotels, restaurants, and services for travelers. Moving away from there, they found shops and residential areas. It wasn't a large city, but it was fairly compact, with three to five storied buildings being the norm near the spaceport, and two to three being more typical on the edges. Taxicabs and pedicabs plied the streets. And many merchants had small street-side stalls along the wide sidewalks, setting up in the spaces between the roadway and pedestrian areas. The range of goods for sale was a real lesson in local culture for the two aliens.

The day plodded on and they followed the few ideas they had. The police department shuffled them off to the city offices. The city offices suggested they try the shelter for victims of domestic violence. The people at the shelter were very nice, but no-one could speak Pelagian or any of the other languages Bumblebee had in his translator. Trying again at the city offices, they were sent to some temple that supposedly gave charity to the downtrodden in the Holy Name of Tning the Merciful. The doddering old priests there, of an unrecognized somewhat-humanoid race, were friendly and spoke Pelagian...sort of. Bumblebee was given a cup of low-grade energon and Carly a bowl of what appeared to be a bland barley soup.

The priests encouraged the pair and suggested finding work at one of the hotels. According to the head priest, the hotels often had employee housing available, which would give them somewhere to stay. And while the work hours would be long and hard, they could at least earn wages to buy food and send a message home. It would be a start.

Before leaving the temple, they were encouraged to seek the blessing of Tning the Merciful, and were led into the main room. The idol of Tning wore the universal smile of benevolence upon his face, and for a moment the priests prostrated themselves before his image and chanted and put their hands upon the two homeless aliens. And then the mech and the human were sent on their way. By now it was well into the planet's night and most of the shops and local businesses were closing up.

"Let's get some sleep and we'll try again when it's daylight, shall we?" suggested Carly. She'd been fighting not to yawn at the temple.

Bumblebee agreed, and the two debated where to find shelter for the night. They were afraid to sleep out in the wilderness for fear of being attacked by something like the giant insect that had grabbed Carly that morning. They didn't want to arouse the suspicions of the police or any security guards, so they decided not to camp out at the Spaceport. But they found a parking lot for a cluster of restaurants that appeared as safe as anything to tuck down in. Carly got out her sleeping bag and arranged herself in it across Bumblebee's two seats, tucking her head inside to get it out of the light.

"Goodnight, Carly," Bumblebee said softly. "Tomorrow we'll look for work at one of the hotels."

"I guess we'll have to. I don't want to spend the rest of my life here."

"It's not where either of us belong," he said softly. "But we'll get home. And until then I'll look after you."

"You have been already," she reminded him.

The Volkswagen chuckled. "I know." He sighed, settling a little lower on his tires. "I wasn't kidding about that promise to Spike. He's very thoughtful of his friends, and he cares a lot about you. I assured him that you were smart and independent and could take care of yourself, but he insisted anyway. So I did promise, and told him I would do my best, should that time ever come."

"Thank you, Bumblebee," she said, giving his pink seat a little hug. "Sometimes he reminds me a lot more of an Autobot than a human. You've all corrupted his way of thinking."

To this statement Bumblebee laughed. "He is at an impressionable age."

She snuggled down a little more comfortably against the seats, making a pillow of the hand towel she'd brought with her.

"Carly?"

"Yes?"

"Reach under my seat. There are some exposed cables there. Would...would you just put your hand on them? Just for a while? While we fall asleep?" he asked somewhat sheepishly.

She smiled understandingly. "Of course." Even if he was the one supposed to be taking care of her, he needed to know that he wasn't alone. And even if he wouldn't admit to being worried, he apparently was if he'd asked for this level of connection. Carly reached under the seat and found the exposed bundle as described...power cables, transfluid lines, neural lines. Gently she spread her hand and pushed her fingertips into them, at which the mech gave a slight shudder. And it was like this that they both dropped off into recharge.

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Stung continues in Chapter 3: "Just Be Glad to Be Here"**

Brawn makes contact with the locals. Carly and Bumblebee get a hotel room...yes, they really do. Literally. And they sleep together. Really. And it's only Chapter 3! I love the way you can play with English language like this.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Please leave a review or a comment; or send me a PM if you'd like to chat. I do answer my PM's and most reviews.

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


	3. Just Be Glad to Be Here

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 3: Just Be Glad to Be Here**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Don't think about all those things you fear**

**Just be glad to be here**

**Just be glad to be here**

**-Lyrics to "Hayling" by FC Kahuna**

-o-o-o-o-o-

The end of the day meal had ended up as most of the end of the day meals had ever since Nuriyev's potatoes-into-vodka experiment had proved successful.

Khabarov was dancing about the table with a glass in one hand and his cap in the other. Tsiolkovsky was crying into his drink over reminiscences of the war. Nuriyev's hand was secretly doing obscene things to Rabinovitch under the table while her boyfriend tried his best to maintain his composure. Dyatlov was trying with little success to do another Sudoku puzzle while Pankin leaned over his shoulder and offered little help. It was all very typical.

But what happened next was completely atypical.

There came a resounding knock at the main door of the station's central module.

"The Hell?!" Tsiolkovsky exclaimed.

Dyatlov waved his hand at Khabarov, who was already on his way to turn down the music.

The six Russians sat frozen, listening.

Half a minute later the knock came again...a cheerful knock that one would expect of a neighbor or a visiting relative.

Except that there were no neighbors. And relatives certainly wouldn't be calling. Not here. Not even the more adventurous ones. Not on the Moon. Their closest neighbors were aboard the ISS...or the Earth, depending on where the International Space Station was currently in orbit.

When the knock came a third time, Dyatlov bolted for the control room and turned the main monitor's feed to that of the main entrance camera. The others, all stumbling in behind him, stared in disbelief. Standing outside the main door was a very large humanoid figure with an orange torso and olive-drab limbs. He was as tall as man and a half, and gleamed of metal. Angling the camera for a better view, the figure suddenly looked toward the movement, and the six cosmonauts could see its steely face clearer. "A...a r-robot!" Pankin stammered.

"It's at our door!"

"It's one of those...those-those..."

"An Autobot," said Dyatlov as the camera panned over to catch the red emblem on its chest.

The robot smiled and waved at the camera. And then a radio message suddenly erupted from the communications console. "Hello! May I come in?" asked the voice in textbook Russian. "I'd like to use your telephone please."

-o-o-o-o-o-

Bumblebee humbly asked to meet with the hotel manager, having seen the "help wanted" sign in the entryway of the hotel. The woman at the desk, a large thick-necked alien of brown skin and six eyes, called into the room behind her, from which another of her race emerged.

"We're looking for work," explained Bumblebee, putting on an enthusiastic smile and hoping that his translation module sounded trustworthy and hardworking. "The priests at the temple of Tning the Merciful suggested trying here. They said it was a nice place." While the priests had not actually suggested this hotel in particular, they had suggested the area. It wouldn't hurt to mention a good word had been passed along.

The alien leaned forward over the desk to look at Carly, the top of whose head was all he could see. "What races are you?" he asked curiously.

"Cybertronian and human."

"Never heard of them. How'd you end up here?"

"Not quite sure. Some kind of accident. And I've found my credits are no good here, so we need to earn some money to feed ourselves and get passage home."

"I see," he said, not looking all that enthusiastic about the applicants. He leaned forward to look at Carly again. "Can she speak?"

"Yes, but she doesn't know any of the local languages used."

The manager didn't look pleased at that. "That's a shame. She's nice-looking, but the language thing...and so small too. What languages are _you_ programmed with?"

"I'm set with the major fifty for the seventh octant of the galaxy, and the top twenty for her planet," he said hopefully. "I've been able to read about half of the signs in Hax Horobis here."

"And what is your function?" he asked.

"Domestic service," Bumblebee lied, knowing that "scout" or "spy" would be more likely to earn him a laugh rather than employment.

"And her skills?"

"She's a student of cybernetics."

"A student. Hmmm...well..."

He looked them up and down again. Bumblebee crossed his fingers, a human custom he'd picked up from Spike.

"Well, I can take you two on a trial basis. I'll fuel and house you for a week while we see if you can undertake any of the work here. And if you do work out, I'll see about a salary."

"Thank you. Thank you very much. We don't have anywhere to go, so that will be a big help."

"I figured. Follow me."

"Carly! He'll take us!" grinned Bumblebee, grabbing happily for her hands. "It's not great, but he'll give us a trial to see how well we work out here."

"Oh wonderful!" cried Carly. She'd been unable to follow the conversation, the bouncing and punctuated language being impossible to follow, and so had just stood there trying to look pleasant.

"He won't pay us at first, but he'll give us a place to stay and food and fuel."

"That's better than nothing."

-o-o-o-o-o-

The Garden Paradise Hotel did indeed contain a garden paradise. The large hotel, some three stories tall, centered around an extensive garden courtyard, the doors to the rooms facing onto it. The lowest level contained a few guest rooms, most of the level being used for the kitchen and restaurant and other services. The courtyard itself was well planted with trees, flowers, and ornamental grasses, giving the place the look of a botanic garden. Gauzy screens hung above the courtyard and created a partial shade that took the edge off of the harsh sunlight, but in turn gave everything something of a "soft focus" effect. Hound would love this place, Bumblebee decided. Lately, the olive drab mech had been spending a lot of time in the Central City Botanical Gardens, and had even made friends with some of the gardeners and staff there.

The manager put them to work immediately with some of the other employees. Carly was taken to the kitchen where she was assigned the task of washing dishes, helping in the kitchen, and delivering food to the guests of the hotel. And Bumblebee found himself assigned to the open-air baths at the center of the garden, screened off from view by a wall of dark-red foliage and tall ferns. His job would be to bathe guests, dry them off, and tend to any of their needs while they were in the bath area. "At least the pools and the garden are pretty," he sighed to himself on learning what his duties would be. Thankfully Carly hadn't been given his job.

Bumblebee was introduced to his supervisor—a faceless transparent blob-like alien who claimed to be female (not that there was anything he recognized as female on or inside her body), who began to teach him the ropes right away. "Well we can be busy here most anytime of the day," Racki said. "This is morning shift, and it's the second busiest. Afternoon shift isn't bad. Evening shift gets crazy sometimes. Night shift is pretty quiet but usually steady with the nocturnals or late arrivals. Most of the hotel guests are either crews from the ships that land here, or tour groups on Horobis to see the Grand Canyon. And since Hax Horobis is the only large-scale spaceport on the Tabbilli Run, everyone stops here for refueling and supplies."

"I see," he said, looking up a moment from where she had started him on folding the towels that had just been delivered from the laundry room.

"So we get all types of guests...just about every race in the galaxy. A lot of them come stay here at the hotels just to get off of their ships. And we're popular because of the garden. It's a wonderful change from being aboard a spacecraft, and sometimes a bit of home."

At that moment a large robot walked into the bath area, and Racki waved at him. For a moment Bumblebee tensed, wondering if he was a Decepticon. There was something about his dark blue plating and somewhat sinister build that suggested it. But not seeing any Decepticon symbols on the armor he relaxed. The only marks on his body were a few bold yellow stripes and a white emblem that looked like a seven-pointed star. Racki oozed over to him, greeting him with an enveloping hug and a cheerful voice. And then she led him with a pseudopod over to the shower. "Bumblebee, you're in luck!" she called to the Autobot.

"Yes, ma'm?"

"This is CG-177, one of our regulars here. He'll be your first."

Bumblebee stood at attention. At least another mech would be sympathetic to what would probably be an awkward first attempt at bathing a hotel guest. "All right. I'll do my best."

The large, dark mech nodded.

Racki guided Bumblebee through the washing process, from the shower to scrubbing to rinsing to assisting the guest into an appropriately heated soaking pool. And then she showed Bumblebee where refreshments were kept at her station. From her cupboard she withdrew what appeared to be a sphere of energon and took it over to the dark mech, and then sat with him, chatting jovially while he drank it. Bumblebee busied himself with mopping up some of the tiles around the bath area.

Bumblebee was pleased. For a first attempt, he felt that he'd done well. But then again, CG-177 was a robot—something he was familiar with. He knew how to handle servos and joints and plating. It was the organic creatures that he knew would be the challenge. And when the mech rose from the soaking pool and allowed himself to drain, Bumblebee hurried over with a pair of towels and carefully patted him down after he'd drained. "Thank you," CG-177 said in his tinny yet pleasant voice. "Keep that up and you'll do well here."

Bumblebee nodded quickly, and took the damp towels back to the laundry hamper.

"Nice job," complimented Racki, coming back over as the dark mech departed. "Let me show you how to add services to a guest's bill." She led the way back to her station and brought up a computer screen. "One bath is included in the basic nightly fee, and they'll give you a ticket like this one when they come in." She showed him the red plastic card CG-177 had handed her when he'd arrived. "It's got their room number and guest information on it. But drinks and any additional services aren't included, so we add them here." She pulled up a menu on the screen. "It's a pretty basic menu to use. You'll get used to it quickly." She then pulled up a customer identification window, followed by a service items window, and tapped on the entry for energon twice. "There...two standard spheres of energon added to his bill."

"Two? But you only brought him one."

She chuckled. "He wanted you to have one too. A first day good-luck tip." Racki opened her cupboard, fetched out another sphere, and handed it to him. "You can drink it now if you want, but don't let anyone see you."

Bumblebee took a few sips out of it, and then set the remainder into his subspace storage for later. It had a bit of different taste to it than the Earth distillates he'd become accustomed to, but it was pleasant and he could feel the charge settling nicely into his tank.

Through the rest of his shift, he followed Racki's instructions and worked with a variety of guests, quickly learning his new job. Occasionally he'd catch a glimpse of Carly up on the walkways, dressed in a uniform and either carrying a large covered tray or pushing a cart that held several trays. They'd exchange a wave and a smile and at one point they were even able to meet for a few moments.

"How's it going?" Carly asked the mech.

"Very well. Apparently our shifts should be over in about one and a half Earth-hours."

"Good. Because I'm worn out," she sighed. "It's been hard, but I've learned what Pelagian numbers look like so I can make room deliveries, and I've just about got washing dishes down." She looked at her hands. "I'm hoping I can find some lotion or something to put on them. They're getting chapped already."

"We'll find something," Bumblebee smiled.

"How's your job?" she asked.

"Not bad, if you don't mind looking at wet, naked aliens."

Carly snorted a laugh, completely amused.

And when the end of his shift came, the manager who'd talked to them earlier came out and talked to Racki about the robot, and was pleased to hear of her trainee's excellent progress. Apparently the report for Carly wasn't so good, but the manager took it with a grain of salt, explaining to the head of the kitchen that the girl was not stupid; just new to the planet and didn't speak his language.

The manager then took them to a room toward the back of the lower floor and unlocked it for them. ''Here's where you and the girl will stay. There's bedding in the closet, and the employee wash room is the red door down the hallway. Your next shift will begin at 30:00, so report to your stations then.

Bumblebee thanked him again for giving them a trial opportunity.

The manager nodded, gave them some keys, and departed.

Carly opened the closet, and finding a large, thin mattress there, she dragged it out to the middle of the floor and then began dressing it with the sheets also found in the closet. Bumblebee repeated the manager's message in English for her, and then began pulling things out of subspace and placing them on the low shelf underneath the long glass block window.

"It's not much of a room," Carly said. "I saw inside some of the rooms upstairs and there were some fancy ones. The third floor is where all the rich guests stay."

"It's somewhere safe to sleep, and we're fed."

"Yes. I'm so glad we have that. And no offense, but it will be more comfortable than sleeping across your seats."

"And we have each other. I keep wondering what happened to the rest of the team."

"I do too," she sighed, trying not to smile too hard. Being with Bumblebee was indeed good fortune. Perhaps Spike had ended up stuck somewhere with that notorious whiner Huffer, which would probably be about as bad as getting dumped in deep space.

She surveyed the things Bumblebee had set onto the shelf—Spike's duffel, her little suitcase, their cooler, four gallon-jugs of water, a small sack of apples and oranges, a two-liter bottle of store-brand cola, a jar of peanuts, a lavender pair of pajamas, and two sleeping bags. She was amazed that Bumblebee could stuff such a surprising amount into his subspace compartments. This was the gear she and Spike had packed on planning for a week on Cybertron.

She opened her suitcase and took out her pajamas. As for the rest, she had a change of clothing, a second bra, clean socks and panties for the week, and a light jacket. Spike probably had packed the same, minus the pajamas. As she'd learned earlier this summer, he preferred to sleep in a tee-shirt and his tighty-whities. "Real men don't wear pajamas," he'd stated. It must have been something he'd picked up when working with his dad on the oil rig.

Carly slipped off her shoes and discreetly changed into her pajamas. "There's only one mattress so I guess we're sharing a bed."

"I promise not to steal the covers," Bumblebee giggled. How many times had he woken to find her chastising Spike for that offense?

"I would go take a bath tonight, but I'm just so worn out."

"I've been taking baths all day. I get pretty wet cleaning off the hotel guests, and they splash me sometimes from the soaking pools. It's all friendly though. Racki, my supervisor, splashes me too. It's funny that's her name, since she runs the hotel washrack essentially. I don't know what kind of alien she is, but you can look right through her and see what I guess are her organs. She doesn't have a face...just a mouth. But she tells great stories and flirts with most of the patrons."

Carly chuckled and lay down on the mattress, pulling the sheet over herself. "You'll have to introduce me sometime." Bumblebee took a moment to tidy his things before lying down next to her. "I've set my chronometer to local time, so I'll watch the time for us. It looks like we start work in just under thirteen Earth hours."

"Thanks 'Bee," she said.

"I promised I'd look after you."

They settled into the mattress and made themselves comfortable. And it was then, after she'd been lying still for a moment that a small whimper escaped Carly's throat. He thought nothing of it until it was followed by a louder one with an unmistakable sound of crying. "Carly...what's wrong?" Bumblebee asked softly. "Is your arm hurting you?"

"No. Not my arm." Suddenly she rolled over and grabbed his hand, hugging it tightly to her chest. "I'm sorry, 'Bee, but I'm just so worried. About us and what's going to happen. What if we can't get back to Earth or Cybertron? And what about the others who were in the same transport? Where did they end up? And what if things go badly for us here? Someone might take advantage of us or I might catch some horrible disease, and what if you get broken or something? And what about Spike? I'll bet he's worried sick about me...if he's still alive. The space bridge could have dumped him anywhere."

Bumblebee reached his other hand around the girl, resting it against her back. "I know, Carly," he whispered. "I'm worried too. But we'll get home. I will do everything I can to take care of us and get us home. That's all I can do right now."

"I'm sorry to be so whiny and helpless. You know it's not like me, but I can't help myself."

He stroked her hair soothingly. "You're tired, and we've had a rough few days. Get some sleep and everything will seem a little better in the morning."

She continued to sob against his arm until she drifted off to sleep, Bumblebee lying next to her feeling almost as helpless.

Bumblebee settled again but did not release her. Her worries were valid ones. They were far from home, cut off and without finances or friends. But if they could make their jobs work and earn a little money, at least they could send a message home, and after a while, with a bit more money, they could book passage home aboard one of the space-going ships. It was a slow, boring plan, but it would work.

Or perhaps back on the Ark they'd been able to track the actions of the space bridge and knew where the lost passengers could be found. Perhaps Optimus was already working on some kind of rescue.

He thought about Smokescreen and wondered how his lover would be taking the news that he'd been lost to the stars. He would be upset, but not despairing—he knew how cruel fate could be, and could roll with the punches. Early heartbreaks had made him much more resilient to loss. The red and blue mech would probably grieve for a month, mope for another couple, and then slide right into some other mech's berth, probably claiming a good hard interface would soothe his hurting spark. Cliffjumper would mourn but would not hurt for long. Beachcomber probably wouldn't even think much about it until he hit one of his 'blue moods,' at which point he'd probably fall into an even deeper depression.

Bumblebee sighed. All things considered, what had happened to them was really very minor given all the possibilities. They were alive, sheltered, fed, and together. And save for a Carly's bruised arm, they were in good repair. He'd been in far, far worse situations before. This was...this was just a forced vacation. They would be away a while, but in time they would be able to return. Life would go on as before.

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Stung continues in Chapter 4: "Surprises"**

One day he's a lost and penniless mech. The next day he's got a job, a place to live, and a gorgeous alien girlfriend. Fate has dealt a strange hand to Bumblebee. And Brawn is captured by the Russians and held for ransom!

-o-o-o-o-o-

Thank you for reading! Feedback and communication is appreciated by any author. Send me a PM if you'd like.

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Author Notes**

**Chapter Title -** The title is taken from this beautiful, surreal song by F.C. Hayling, and it really reflects the mood of the whole story. As it's mentioned, things could be a lot worse for Bumblee and Carly. And we've yet to find out what's happened to Skids and Jazz. As far as we know, things will be okay for Brawn, Spike, and Huffer. Yes, in some ways it's a bit of a Panglossian outlook on the events, but in this case, accepting what has happened is all right. Life can suck at times, but it can always suck a lot worse.

**Moonbase Tranquility One** – I imagined something like this as a typical off-world research station you'd see in any sci-fi television show or movie. Buncha guys stuck in some remote place for a few months, doing their jobs and trying to stay sane despite the isolation. The whole idea of an alien robot suddenly showing up at the door is just the transposition of someone breaking down on a country road, hiking to a farmhouse, and asking to borrow their telephone to call for help.

**Tning the Merciful** – A generic benevolent alien god created for this story...arch nemesis of the Flash Gordon villain "Ming the Merciless."

**Carly's language issue** – Ever wonder about the experience of immigrants to the USA looking for work. Having worked in restaurants and in a hotel, and living in a town where there is a major summer influx of immigrant workers, this story somewhat reflects that. Though this time it's the perfect, highly educated white girl who is the stranger in a strange land. You'll think about immigrant workers in a new light after this.

**The Garden Paradise Hotel** – Created from a combination of things...the Mexican and Caribbean resorts I've stayed at, the Japanese Ryokans I've stayed at, and the traditional Turkish baths I hope to experience some day.

**Racki** – I've taken some of the classic monsters of Sci-fi and made them into ordinary citizens. Racki's a classic blob of plasma creature. Just wait until Carly meets Vaallo in Chapter 5! Tentacle non-rape! Some of you might be disappointed.

**Pelagian** – the language of those who travel the stars. Some of you will recognize the word as meaning something else...and will find my choice for this intra-galactic Esperanza appropriate.

**Huffer** – I originally was going to have Brawn and Spike together, but decided to have Brawn materialize on the Moon, and I already had plans for Jazz and Skids, which meant that Huffer was the one to end up on Cybertron.

**There Is Only One Bed** – So cliché! So fanfic cliché! But I'm not using it as a plot device to get them together. It's just how the minimalist rooms for the hotel workers are. Though I do use it for a bit of humor regarding the fact that Carly and Spike have been sharing a bed, occasionally fighting over the covers. Besides things get much more un-modest in the next chapter on their first trip to the workers' baths...which are basically an un-luxurious version of where Bumblebee now works. Besides, what's sharing a bed when Carly climbs into Bumblebee for a ride?

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


	4. Surprises

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 4: Surprises**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Fergalicious definitionMake them boys go loco  
They want my treasure so they get their pleasures from my photo.  
You could see me, you can't squeeze me.  
I ain't easy, I ain't sleazy.  
I got reasons why I tease 'em.  
Boys just come and go like seasons.**

**Fergalicious (so delicious)**  
**But I ain't promiscuous.**  
**And if you were suspicious,**  
**All that sh** is fictitious.**  
**I blow kisses (mwah!)**  
**That puts them boys on rock, rock.**  
**And they be lining down the block just to watch what I got**

**So delicious**

**Lyrics from "Fergalicious" by Fergie**

-o-o-o-o-o-

The Autobots gathered around Teletraan One, gasping at the scene shown. A man in a jumpsuit stood before the camera. Behind him were two women and three men dressed the same way, two of them armed, holding what appeared to be high powered rifles.. A Russian flag hung on the wall behind them.

"Commander Optimus Prime of the Autobots on Earth?" asked the man at the camera.

"Yes?"

"I am Captain Yuri Dyatlov of Moonbase Tranquility One. One of your men was caught spying on us. We have captured him."

"Brawn!" Prime gasped as the captain stepped aside to reveal one of the lost members of the mission to Cybertron. Brawn sat on the floor of what looked to be a laboratory, heavy cables binding him head to foot. The warrior's head picked up at hearing his name.

"Brawn!? Can you hear me? Are you all right?" Optimus asked anxiously.

"I'm fine, Prime." He vented a sigh. "Sorry. Somehow I ended up on the Moon and...got captured when I was trying to find a way to contact you."

Dyatlov stepped into the shot again. "You may come and get your spy, but...there is a ransom for him."

"A ransom? I will contact the Russian Consul in San Francisco..."

"We are operating independently of the Russian State. You will not contact the consul or anyone else!" Captain Dyatlov snapped aggressively.

"All right. Please tell me what it is you wish." Optimus glanced over to another console where Prowl and Red Alert were hurriedly pulling up any information they could find on Moonbase Tranquility One and its crew. They could come in meek and humble, following the orders of the hostage takers, but go out with guns blazing once they could safely turn the situation to their advantage.

"Our demands are as follows. If you wish to have your spy back, you must deliver the following to us here on the Moon." Dyatlov picked up a handwritten list and began to read. "Forty pounds of apples. Twenty pounds of oranges. Ten pounds of bananas. Four heads of green cabbage. Two heads of red cabbage. Five loaves of dark rye bread and five loaves of light rye bread."

Some of the Autobots were looking about at each other as the items were read off and the oddity of the ransom was sinking in. They'd been threatened before, the captors demanding weapons and technology usually. But these independent Russians on the Moon were wanting...food?

"Twelve pounds of good coffee, pre-ground. One dozen ribeye steaks, frozen. Forty pounds of potatoes. Ten pounds of carrots. Three dozen eggs. One case of Jack Daniels whiskey. One case of Stolichnaya vodka. One bottle of vanilla extract. Thirty-six rolls of soft toilet paper. One bottle of floral scented shampoo."

Captain Dyatlov looked up from his list and glared at the Autobots. "Deliver these things within the week and we will return your man to you unharmed," he said with all seriousness.

Some of the Autobots were trying not to laugh, having realized what was happening. Tracks was stifling himself so hard he was shaking.

"And those are..._all_ of your demands?" Optimus asked with deep concern. There hadn't even been a request for money or communications equipment.

Blaster could no longer contain himself. "That's not a ransom demand," he chortled. "That's a grocery list."

The Russian captain allowed himself a smirk.

"A grocery list?"

"They want some fresh food up there. Haven't you paid any attention to what the humans eat?"

The comedy of the situation suddenly dawned on Optimus. The others were all chortling around him. And the cosmonauts on the Moon were all giggling in the background along with Brawn, who rose to his feet and wriggled out of the cables that were supposedly restraining him. He came forward and leaned into the camera behind Dyatlov. "These guys are great. I asked what they could do in exchange for getting a message back to the Ark, and they wanted some fresh fruit brought up. It sorta went from there."

"I see," said Optimus, allowing himself a bit of a chuckle. "Well I'll send someone into town to get what they want, and we'll send Jetfire up to make the exchange."

"Thank you, Prime."

The captain saluted. "Thank you very much, Optimus Prime. We have been up here a while, and will be here another three months. We will much appreciate this."

"Prime, any idea of how I ended up here?" asked Brawn, switching from Russian to Cybertronian.

"We aren't completely sure. Wheeljack, Perceptor, and Grapple have been working on the problem for the past two days. It seems that there was some malfunction in the space bridge, and the team was scattered," the Autobot leader answered back in the same.

"Have the others been found?"

"Well, Huffer and Spike made it to Cybertron, and are proceeding with the mission. We've sent Cosmos after them since they'll need a ride home. With your call, we've now accounted for three out of the seven members of the team that went. The whereabouts of Jazz, Skids, Carly, and Bumblebee are still unknown."

"I see," said Brawn flatly.

"But we're working on it, and we'll have you back soon enough."

"Prime, if you manage to locate any of the others, please call me here."

"Will do. Optimus Prime out."

"So what was that about?" asked Sparkplug, having been left out of most of the exchange by the languages involved. He'd gotten that Brawn had been captured by Russians somewhere, but apparently it had been a joke.

Optimus straightened and shook off his worried look. "Sparkplug, I have a mission for you in Central City."

-o-o-o-o-o-

Carly woke to the sounds of sex from the room next to theirs—happy giggles and enthusiastic moaning. And closer than the sounds of the lovemaking, she could hear soft clicking and beeping and the occasional ping of computer windows opening and closing. She sat up and found Bumblebee awake from recharging as well. He sat next to her on the mattress, his hands busy at a data pad. "Good morning," he said cheerfully as she yawned. "Well, good evening, actually. It seems to be sunset here."

There came a loud moan followed by some exclamations in an alien language from the room next door.

"Well I see they have sex on this planet as well," she commented.

"Sounds like you and Spike on a good night. How did you sleep?" he asked.

Carly blushed at the robot's commentary. "Like the dead."

"Feeling any better?"

"I don't know yet. I'll let you know when I've had some coffee."

"Want me to run down to Starbucks and get you a latte? I'm sure they've conquered this side of the galaxy as well."

Carly giggled. "I could use something to drink. I'm sure I'll be hungry soon too. They gave me food in the kitchen yesterday, but I was afraid to eat much of it. I didn't recognize anything, but I decided to risk some of the vegetable-looking things, and they don't seem to have poisoned me. But Thank goodness for all those sandwiches we brought along. Did you get any sort of fuel?"

"They have energon here, plenty of it. There was this robot in for a bath, and he gave me some energon since I was new. It comes in spheres here instead of cubes."

"He probably thought you were cute."

"I think he was just being nice. I don't know what planet he was from. Definitely not Cybertron though. He was built very differently."

The rhythm of the couple next door seemed to be picking up speed, and the volume of the moaning had increased.

"Speaking of bath...maybe we should go try to find that one down the hall," Carly suggested, picking up her toiletries kit. Her 'maybe' was actually a command to herself, beginning to feel rather awkward about the noise from the neighbors. Surely she and Spike hadn't been that vocal, had they?

Taking their keys, they found the bath, a single room much like a spartan version of Bumblebee's work area. "I guess there's no men's side or women's side," Carly decided aloud.

She looked at Bumblebee for a moment, and then walked over to one of the cubbies that appeared to be for putting one's things into.

"Would you like me to leave? I can come back and wash up afterward," he offered, knowing human etiquette regarding bathing.

"Well, anyone else could come in. I'm assuming all the employees living here have keys. And given the nature of your new job I suppose there's no reason to be modest around you now," she mused.

"I guess not. Besides, I'm naked all the time."

This made her giggle again. "I've never thought of it that way, but I guess you are. Or do you just sleep in your armor?" She took off her pajamas and moved to one of the two shower heads that hung from the ceiling. And then she stared at the control unit on the wall, arms akimbo, trying to make sense of it.

"Here, I'll turn it on for you," said Bumblebee, reaching for it.

He expertly worked the controls, having learned them well from his training the day before, and a shower of hot water fell from above.

"I should just let you wash me," she laughed, grabbing for her soap. "Give you some more practice."

"Ah...I don't know if I should. What would I tell Spike?"

"Tell him you had your hands all over his wet and naked girlfriend...just like you had your hands over every guest at the hotel."

Bumblebee was a bit startled, but then realized she was teasing. "I suppose I could use a bit more practice, especially since you're in the size range of some of the aliens here."

And so he washed Carly, carefully soaping her from throat to ankle, gently shampooing her bright blond hair, then bending and twisting her beneath the showerhead to remove all the suds in the rinse phase. At each step he was careful around her bruised arm, the marks now turning from red to bluish purple. And then he guided her to the hot soaking bath at the side of the room and held her hand while she stepped in. "Now I'm supposed to offer you a drink or mention that there is a masseuse on the premises."

"I'll have both please," she said slowly, sinking neck-deep into the water.

Bumblebee was about to step into the shower himself when the door opened and another hotel worker came in. This was one of the reptilian Taliseet people that seemed to make up about half of the population here at Hax Horobis, and judging by the large dewy eyes and fine features, this one was female, confirmed when her soft, musical voice greeted them.

Bumblebee answered back in Pelagian, at which she smiled. "You're the new washbot, aren't you? Working for Racki, right?"

"Yes. I just started yesterday."

"Racki said there was a bright yellow robot with a friendly face working the baths now. She liked you a lot," said the lizardess. She walked up to Bumblebee and extended her palm face up.

Racki had taught him the local greeting customs, and so Bumblebee put his hand face down atop hers. "My name's Bumblebee, and this is my friend Carly," he said, gesturing at the human in the bath. Carly waved back when the lizardess nodded at her.

"I'm Vashi," she said. "A hostess here." And then she winked flirtatiously at Bumblebee. "Since you're the new washbot, how about a freebie?"

"You...want me to wash you?"

"You've got it," she said with a slow blink and a come-hither smile. She shed the robe she was wearing and walked over to stand beneath one of the showers, and then held out her personal bottle of soap toward him.

Bumblebee obliged her, thankful that Racki had shown him how to bathe one of her species the shift before. And apparently he was doing well, for she purred and smiled the whole time he was rubbing her long fingers and splaying the delicate leathery fins that angled off of her. "Your kind is so beautiful," Bumblebee told her admiringly, gently working the soap from her body. Even Carly had to admit she was beautiful. Her base color seemed to be beige, but her fine scales ran a rowdy gamut of colors from red to rust to yellow to white. The skin between the spines of her fins was an oxblood red. The kitchen boss was also of the same reptilian race, but he was nowhere near as colorful or as lovely as she was. He was a dirty dark green with heavy scales and tattered fins.

"Thank you," she said with a slow blink of her large eyes. "And don't tell anyone else you did me for free, or else they'll all expect the same."

After he finished rinsing Vashi off, she walked over to the tub Carly was soaking in and climbed in beside her. "Carly, was it? What species are you? I've not seen your kind before. Similar, but not the same."

Carly looked to Bumblebee. "What did she say?"

"She was just asking what species you were." And then he changed tongues. "Vashi, she doesn't speak any of the local languages. We're quite a long ways from home."

"Oh, I see." And then she took Carly's chin in hand and gently turned her face toward the light.

"'Bee...?" Carly gasped.

"It's okay. She's nice. She's a 'hostess' here, whatever that is." He turned to Vashi again. "She's a human from the planet Earth."

"I've never heard of it, but your friend is pretty," Vashi decided "Shame about the language thing. I guess that's why they gave her a kitchen job."

"Yep. She said she was having a hard time with it too. I wish I could help her out, but I'm stuck at the baths in the courtyard."

"The kitchen boss is tough to work for. But tell you what, Bumblebee." She released Carly and leaned out toward the mech. "I'll help her out today, when I can, if you'll give me another freebie."

"Would you?" Bumblebee asked excitedly. Apparently being a washbot had some worth. Maybe it wasn't as lowly of a job as he'd previously thought.

Vashi blinked seductively at him. "Of course. It's nice to have some help getting my cosmetics off after a shift."

-o-o-o-o-o-

After Bumblebee washed himself, he and Carly headed back to their room, Vashi pointedly saying a personal goodbye to the mech.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was flirting with you," said Carly.

"Really? You think so?"

"Bumblebee you really are clueless. How long have you been alive?"

The Autobot rolled up the mattress and put it back into the closet. "I'm not that naïve. I just didn't think an organic creature I'd just met would be interested in a robot right off the bat."

Carly giggled. "Well lets go to the kitchen and find something to eat before work," she said, looking up at the time on the clock. "That's what I'm interested in. Maybe you can help me figure out what's edible and what's not."

-o-o-o-o-o-

The shift went well it seemed, Bumblebee and Carly working hard at their trial jobs. As beautiful as the garden had looked during the daylight hours, it seemed magical at night. The exotic flowers and plants were lit from below with multiple colored lights. Soft music played from speakers hidden about the area. Quiet as it had been during the day shift, it was doubly busy in the dark. The guests of the hotel came from their rooms to bathe and soak, and both Bumblebee and Racki were busy at the showers, a short line even forming for a while.

Bumblebee didn't mind the hard work, and he did fairly well. Most of the guests were understanding of his occasional slip-ups, Racki kindly letting them know that he was quite new to the job. And he did catch sight of Carly up on the walkways in front of the rooms, and a few times he spotted Vashi with her. How he'd recognized the lizardess he wasn't sure, for while he'd only seen her naked in the bath, she was now robed in layers of sheer cloth and wore an elaborate headdress of sparkling ornaments as well as plenty of other jewelry. The area around her eyes had been painted with black lines and purple eyeshadow. Some of the patterns in her scales had been enhanced with black and white paint, giving her and even more exotic appearance. There were three other ladies similarly attired and painted—other hostesses he presumed.

"You've got an eye for organics, I see," commented Racki when the rush finally died down and they could take a break together in the shack and sneak a little drink.

"Oh? Me? Well, Carly's my friend," he explained.

"I know that. But I've noticed you watching Vashi, the hostess, several times."

"Is there something wrong with that?" he asked sincerely. "We met her this morning in the employee bath. She was really nice to me."

Racki laughed and wrapped a huge transparent pseudopod around him. She was easily a head taller than he was when she drew her bulk up. "Nothing wrong at all. In fact that's what she wants. She wants people to look. But just watch out for her."

"Oh?" Bumblebee took his sphere of energon out of subspace and sipped at it.

"She's very sweet, but lets just say, too much candy is bad for you. She'll take advantage of you if you don't watch out. But that's how she is. She's a professional flirt and a consummate tease. That's how all the hostesses are."

"Should I stay away from her?"

Racki laughed, sipping at a bottle of some blue liquid, which pooled in the cavity behind her mouth before being drawn through suddenly visible veins throughout her body. "You don't have to, but don't give her anything you might want back"

"I'll try to remember that."

"And...Vashi...she seems to prefer mechs over her own kind, so don't be surprised if she gets rather 'personal' with you."

Bumblebee was stunned. "She prefers mechs?" He thought back to his washing of her in the bath before their shift, and of Carly's appraisal of Vashi's behavior. Had the hostess already selected him as a target?

Racki nodded. "And go ahead and enjoy every moment of it, but just don't expect it to last. And don't ever think you can make her stay."

Bumblebee took a gulp of energon and put the sphere away. A couple of guests had entered the baths. Smiling he went out to greet them. And past their heads on the top floor walkway he spotted Vashi, promenading arm in arm with a hotel guest. He tried to remember her nature later when Vashi came down to the baths with the same man and sat with him while he soaked in the tubs, talking and flirting with him as if he were the only man in the world. But when the guest was distracted, she gave Bumblebee was a tiny wave and a fleeting smile.

At the end of third shift, as the time on the clock approached 30:00, the manager appeared and again talked with the work supervisors. All was well at the baths, and he offered Bumblebee a position right then and there, telling him he'd have a contract drawn up before the robot's next shift. As for Carly, he still was unsure, but he decided to give her the rest of the week to prove herself.

"It's not fair," Carly whimpered once back in the privacy of their room. "The guy running the kitchens is crazy. He's always yelling at me in whatever language it is they speak here and I have no idea what they're saying. He wants this and he wants that and I don't have the dishes washed the moment they come back to the washing area, and then he gets mad that I'm not there washing dishes, but it's because I'm out making a delivery to one of the rooms," she ranted.

Bumblebee held her in his arms and rubbed her back as she spilled out her frustrations along with a torrent of tears. And when her venting finally ceased, she apologized to him and tried to wipe her face clean.

"It's okay. I'll have a contract tomorrow and we'll have some money coming in. And look..." He opened up a pocket beneath an armor plate and pulled out the contents, pressing it into her hands.

It was alien money, but recognizably money. Oblong coins of bronze, brass, and silver filled her palms. "I got some tips today," he said proudly. He poked the coins about in her hands, listing their denominations. "One jil. Two jil. Five jil. That big bronze one with the hole through the center is the prize. Ten jil. I estimate it's worth about twenty-five to thirty dollars. A rich old lady gave it to me. Racki said I should put it on a cord and tie it inside my armor for good luck. And that big dark blue robot was back again. He gave me another energon sphere, and I've not even finished the first. And they give me an energon ration here as well."

"That's wonderful," Carly said. "Maybe I should come work at the baths too."

"You're too small, to be honest. But maybe we could see about a different place for you. Maybe cleaning rooms or gardening."

"Anything would be better than having to work for Godzilla in the kitchens."

Bumblebee chuckled and kissed the top of her head. "You'll be fine. I promise."

"I found out what a hostess is too," she said on catching her breath. "There are some other hostesses too, besides Vashi. You can tell them by their clothes and all the makeup they wear. She and the others were in several of the rooms at different times, hanging out with guests. Socializing with them and dancing for them. Sometimes Vashi would have out this guitar-like instrument and be playing music. "

"Some sort of an entertainer then."

"Something like that. Kinda like a Japanese geisha I guess."

"That would explain her get up. She was really fancy-looking. Did she help you any tonight?"

"She did. She helped me deliver some of the meal trays, and if she was in the kitchen, she'd stop Godzilla from yelling at me. I think he's got a thing for her."

"Who wouldn't? She's so attractive..and that voice of hers. It's almost like she's singing when she talks to you. Well I'm glad she helped you out a bit. I had asked her if she would, when we were talking in the bath earlier."

"You asked her to?"

"I did. I told you I'd look after you." He also repeated Racki's warning about Vashi's particular personality quirk, which made Carly laugh.

At that moment a soft knock came at the door. Bumblebee rose and answered it, finding Vashi standing there in all her finery.

"Hello, Vashi," he said, holding out his palm to her.

"Speak of the Devil," Carly muttered.

The beautiful lizardess placed her hand onto his. "Bumblebee. Hello. I was about to head for the bath. Care to join me?"

He noted the seductive tone in her voice and Bumblebee suspected she was about to collect on her favor...or more. "All right. Let me just say goodnight to Carly. She's ready to go to bed."

"Of course. I'll meet you there," she said with a lingering blink of her heavily painted eyes and she turned and glided toward the workers' baths.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Bumblebee unlocked the bath door and found the hostess underneath a shower head already, the robes and jewelry and headdress gone. A small music player sat on a shelf, perfuming the room with a gentle melody. "There you are, Bumblebee," she said as he entered. The way she rolled his name off of her tongue sent a charge of excitement through his chest.

"Yes...just tucking Carly down."

"She's a sweet girl. And you're so good to her."

"Do you still want me to wash you?" he asked, noting that her makeup had been completely removed and she was rinsing off.

"I guess I beat you to it," she said. "You'll have to make up for it another time. Why don't you let me do you? I can wash you instead."

"Really? Oh you don't have to." If they were going to play a game of exchanging favors, he didn't want to owe her too much.

"No, I insist. A freebie, since you gave me one earlier."

Bumblebee couldn't argue with that, and it would be nice to feel how someone else did it. Perhaps he'd learn a few tricks from that. "All right."

He joined her under the shower head and she filled a sponge with liquid soap. She was a head and a half taller than Carly, but still shorter than he was. And as she began to wash him, he decided to kneel down to allow her to more easily access his clavicular plates and head.

He decided that he was learning something from her, for she ran the sponge across him in tight circles that swirled over him in a predictable route, but just as a route had been decided, she would break away and take the direction elsewhere, leaving him surprised and wanting. It was teasing...not satisfying. He made a note to himself not to do that to the hotel guests. And then there was the way she rubbed soap up behind his sensor horns, almost as if she knew it would set him on edge—in a very distracting way. Another note to his list. And then when she pressed her lithe body against his back, her hands sliding over his chest plating from behind, he decided that would be a completely inappropriate way to handle a guest. And he was about to tell her so when the realization hit him that she was doing this intentionally, knowing full well how she was touching him.

Racki was right. She was a consummate tease.

"You've stopped moaning," Vashi said next.

"Moaning?"

"Maybe it wasn't moaning. Maybe more of a whimper. I can hear something in your chest too. There's something of a rumbling in there that wasn't rumbling when I started." The lizardess' hands went again for his sensor horns, but this time without soap.

Bumblebee suddenly felt flustered, realizing that he was heating up. He'd been concentrating so hard on studying her technique that he'd ignored the fact that she was stimulating him completely, somehow knowing just how to pleasure a mech's sensor net. And the way she was stroking his horns now and running her fine fingers over the supra-nasal ridges between them had him lighting up excitedly. "Um... Vashi," he gasped and staggered back to his feet, knowing that he needed to stop this now. Was this the 'personal' part of Racki's warning?

"Yes?" she said, looking up at him with her deep brown eyes. Her hands wrapped about his waist articulation affectionately holding him in place with her devious will.

"You...you can stop now," he forced himself to say, barely able to keep his concentration.

"Don't you like it?"

Words bounced about in his vocalizer. "No. I like it very much. Too much."

A smile of success broke across her perfect lips. "Good. I'm glad you've got _that kind_ of programming in you."

"Yes, I do. But you don't have to activate it," he said stepping away. "I don't want to cause any problems or start any trouble."

She pouted. "Don't you want me to? I'm terribly curious about you, Bumblebee. Or... don't you like flesh creatures? Most of the robots around here do. We're very open-minded about relationships." She came around to face him, sharing a quirky little smile with him.

Bumblebee stammered. "You... you mean, you want to... to interface with me?" He hadn't quite expected that degree of 'personal' in Racki's warning.

"Is that what you call it?" Her pout changed back to a smile again, and Bumblebee knew he was stumbling right into her seduction like an innocent into a trap. But what a tempting trap it was. Wasn't that how Smokescreen had caught him in the first place?

"Well, I guess not. It's that only when it's between mechs."

"What would you call it when it's between you and me?" Vashi reached up and draped her arms around his neck. "Tell me what you call it and I'll give it to you."

"I think we'd just call it sex."

"That works for me," she said with another of her slow, suggestive blinks.

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Stung continues in Chapter 5: Tentacles **A strange plant-like alien comes to Carly's aid. Turns out he's not just any old green tentacle monster. Bumblebee discovers the reason he gets most whatever he wants. Bumblebee's getting it twice a day.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Thank you for reading! Feedback and communication is appreciated by any author. Send me a PM if you'd like.

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Author Notes**

**Fergalicious – **I just love this song, and it suits Vashi perfectly. I was going to use "Sheila Ki Jawani" from the movie _Tees Maar Khan _originally, but it wasn't quite right...and then that final chapter of my first TF story "Pet Canary" appeared out of the ether and the song fell into place there.

**Moonbase Tranquility One** – The whole moonbase scenario just seems like...like Dr. Who is about to pop in at any moment.

**Starbucks** – Yes...they're everywhere. Even the Autobots noticed this about Earth.

**The Employee Bath** – Okay, one of my trademarks in my stories is that everyone ends up naked at some point (well, most everyone). There's a lot of nudity in this story, mostly thanks to Bumblebee's job.

**Chick Magnet** – Get used to it. Everyone wants a piece of Bumblebee in this story. Well, almost everyone. I did a list of all the pairings and referenced pairings in this story, and Bumblebee is by far the most active.

**Blinking** – Vashi doesn't wink. She blinks...slowly. Much sexier. Try it, ladies. Make them boys go loco.

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


	5. Tentacles

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 5: Tentacles**

-o-o-o-o-o-

Godzilla was yelling at Carly again, this time enough to bring her to tears. She crouched in the doorway of the kitchens sobbing, the spilled tray on the tiled floor in front of her, bleating "I'm sorry" over and over again in Taliseet as she tried to scoop up the mess to get it out of the traffic pattern. She'd picked up a few words in the past few days and was using them when she could. The day hadn't been going well to start with, what with Bumblebee disappearing with Vashi for long hours during the night and leaving her alone, the couple next door waking her up twice, the incident at the dishwashing station, and the accidental cut on her left hand. And now there was the dropped dinner tray.

But yelling wasn't enough apparently, for suddenly the kitchen boss came over, grabbed Carly by her uniform, and bodily flung her out the door. She stumbled out, trying to catch herself but tripping and ending up in a planter of thick vines. Closing her eyes tightly, she sniffled and wept, her face buried into the greenery. Behind her she could hear Godzilla continue to rant and curse.

This was it. She was being rejected. A degree from MIT and she couldn't even work a lousy kitchen job.

And then the planter she'd landed in began to curse back, the voice coming from the greenery next to her head. She opened her eyes and extracted herself, realizing bit by bit that she'd not ended up in one of the many planters about the courtyard, but had fallen into a guest—literally into him. He was about Bumblebee's car-mode size and appeared to be the result of some unholy gene-splicing experiment between an aloe vera plant and a serving of linguine. Two goggling eyes sat atop stalks and a mouth spoke from somewhere near her shoulder. And as the realization hit her, she backed away, going back to her mantra of "I'm sorry."

But before Carly could get too far, one of the creature's tentacles whipped out of the mass and wrapped about her, halting her retreat. Though its eyes were not on her. Instead it was glaring at Godzilla and speaking angrily and seemingly in her defense. But Godzilla was unmoved and he continued to berate her with much finger-pointing and slobbering.

And through it the plant-type alien seemed unphased, even when at one point in the exchange Godzilla drew himself up, crossed his arms over his chest and laughed in what might be the creature's face.

At which point the plant monster calmly produced a large set of what appeared to be gold bracelets from somewhere beneath his layer of tentacles, counting each pair as they were produced.

Godzilla's haughty shoulders drooped, and then his expression changed markedly. He apologized and retreated to the kitchens, seemingly humbled and even looking somewhat concerned.

Carly had hoped to just slip away from the situation, but the plant creature was not about to let her. He put the bracelets away, reeled his restraining tentacle back in, and looked her up and down, other tentacles slipping out of the body mass and straightening her uniform and dusting her off. He spoke gently to her and smoothed her hair like one would a child, even withdrawing a handkerchief from somewhere and wiping her face.

Carly knew she should be frightened—her body was on edge with all the adrenaline flowing through her veins and being held captive by something exceedingly alien. But her mind had focused on the alien's now gentle, comforting behavior. It had obviously spoken in her favor and was quite concerned with the situation, for now he spoke questioningly to her, soft soothing words bubbling from the mouth tucked amongst its appendages.

"I'm sorry," she said in Pelagian this time. "I didn't mean to fall into you. I hope you can forgive me," she continued in English. Hound had once told her that many plant-type aliens were psychic, and that communication with them only took a bit of sincerity.

The creature paused, and then its eyes brightened. "English! I thought you might be human," it said in the same with a touch of what seemed to be a French accent.

"You...you speak my language?" Carly choked.

"One of many. Now look, dear. Don't worry about your job. I know what happened and I'm going to speak to the manager here. I doubt he'll take kindly to someone tossing employees at the guests." The plant creature gave her a little encouraging pat. "And if that fellow gives you any more trouble, please let me know. I'll he here the next few days while my ship is being serviced."

Carly stood dumbstruck, but finally managed to squeak out a little "thank you."

"Please. Anything for an Earthling. What's your name?"

"Carly."

"You're a long way from home, Miss Carly. So please, if there is anything you need, ask for me. My name is Vaallo."

"Vaallo," she repeated. "That's all?"

"They know me at the front desk here. Now, be brave and go back to work and I think you'll have no trouble."

Vaallo winked a stalked eye at her and shambled off on short pedes toward the hotel offices, Carly staring in disbelief. Had that encounter really just happened?

As the plant had just instructed her, she went back into the kitchen, everyone stopping to look at her. Gathering her courage she went back to her station and began washing dishes again.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Bumblebee came back to their room slightly before she did at the end of first shift and was most curious as to what had happened to her that day, having heard some of the rumors going about. He sat on their mattress, sipping a sphere of energon and listening intently to her story. "Your knight in shining armor," he said at the end of it.

"Shining? More like...rubbery. Okay. He was very kind to me. How was your day?"

"Same old same old. Though Vashi came by several times. She'll be coming by soon...wants to take me out somewhere. And we just got paychecks so I'm going to put mine into the bank account I opened."

"A paycheck? Wonderful!"

"Yes! One down...how many more to go?"

Carly sighed. "Who knows?" And then she gave Bumblebee one of those guilt-inducing looks. "You spend all your free time with Vashi now..."

"She is my girlfriend. Is there something wrong with that?"

Carly paused. Bumblebee was always so straightforward with everyone. "No. I guess not. I guess I just feel a bit left out."

"Oh..." The robot reached for her apologetically. "I'm sorry. I have been neglecting you. Well, how about tonight we'll go out after third shift. Go for a drive and see some of the local scenery in the moonlight or something. Maybe a picnic, like we used to do with Spike? With two moons out it's bright enough for that."

"I'd like that. It would be really nice." And then she sighed. "I miss him, 'Bee."

"Yeah," he agreed, putting his hand onto her shoulder. "I miss him too. And you were twice as close to him."

"I guess you could say that." A faint smile crossed her lips as she thought of how intimate she and Spike had become, once they finally got over their shyness with each other. The fact that Bumblebee and Cliffjumper were both egging them on had only sped up the situation. Over the summer they'd grown spoiled to each other's constant company, the two of them squeezing in as much togetherness as they could.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Carly went to sleep alone again, feeling lonely, and wondering what Bumblebee and Vashi were up to. She'd honestly hoped to fall asleep next to him...the place she felt safest these days. And while she wouldn't admit it, she was still shaking from the events of her shift. But no, he was out on one of his daily two dates with Vashi, letting her use him. How could he fall for that tease, knowing full well what she was? Admittedly most any man would probably fall victim to the same tricks... those dark beautiful eyes, the colorful scales, the wing-like fins, the musical voice, the carefree laughter. And when she dolled herself up for work she was just that...a desirable doll to be played with. And hadn't he mentioned something about a warning from Racki about her?

She'd been surprised at first to find that the Autobots had emotions and desires and appreciations, their being machines and all. As she came to know them better, she found their personalities complex and varied. After a while it no longer surprised her that they cared deeply for each other—having friends and lovers and loved ones. Though what continued to surprise her was that some dated outside of their own species. Powerglide had a thing for this beautiful human girl. And Seaspray was apparently pretty serious with some mermaid-humanoid-transformer on an alien planet. Tracks and that punk from New York were pretty much considered a couple, which made Spike a bit uncomfortable, wondering if the mechs thought he and Bumblebee were also a couple. There were rumors about Jazz and a different alien woman. Of course there were always rumors going around about most everyone aboard the Ark. Not even Optimus was immune. It was no wonder Bumblebee had an immediate attraction for the lizardess. She was just as social and brightly colored as he was.

At some point in the night, as before, Bumblebee returned, slightly damp from a recent shower and quietly humming a song she didn't recognize. He climbed onto the mattress beside her and put his hand on her shoulder before dropping into recharge, his systems all winding down into a soothing purr.

-o-o-o-o-o-

They woke for third shift, got dressed, and got a meal. And on reporting to the kitchen, Carly was sent to the laundry and given a different uniform. Apparently she'd been transferred.

Carly was overjoyed. No more Godzilla. No more strange alien meals on unwieldy trays. No more washing dishes. Instead she had miles and miles of bleached sheets and fluffy towels which never had any pathetic little complaints about how she held them or what language she spoke. Instead of the ranting of a lunatic kitchen manager there was only the slosh of the washing machines and the comforting steady rumble of the dryers. Later that day, as she delivered a stack of towels to the garden baths, Bumblebee met her with much delight. "I'm so glad you're not working in the kitchen any more. Oh, and he's here. The guy you fell into."

Looking toward where his face pointed, she noticed two eyes on long green stalks watching from the coolest temperature tub. Two other pairs of the same watched as well. The water sloshed and part of Vaallo's bulk rose above the surface. "Miss Carly?" he called.

She approached timidly. "Yes, sir?"

"How is your new job working out? I spoke with the manager and arranged for a transfer."

"You did that? I wondered if you might have a hand in it... er... a tentacle. Sorry. I'm not familiar with your species."

Vaallo laughed. "I did. And you can say hand. I have a kind of a hand." He brought up a particular tentacle with a slightly bulbous end to it, which then unfolded into a wriggling fan of finger-like digits. "We each have four of these. They're great for keyboards and control panels."

"May I ask you something, sir?"

"Anything you wish, Miss Carly. I'm not shy."

"How come you know English? It's only spoken on one little planet on the other side of the galaxy, at least that I know of."

Vaallo laughed. "My people have been traveling the stars for a long time and have been visiting your planet. And I've spent time on Earth as well."

"Your people were on Earth? Or are on Earth? Where?" Carly hoped she didn't look as shocked as she felt. But perhaps the plant creature was psychic after all, for he began to shamble out of the soaking tub while calling to Bumblebee in a different language for a towel. "Don't worry about it," he told her. "Life is too short to worry about things you don't need to," he smiled.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Carly and Bumblebee came to the top of the mesa overlooking the spaceport sprawling below. They were just off the road where they had first approached the city and seen it for the first time. Only this time it was night, and it seemed a glittering snowflake of light. The rays of the rail-lines connecting the landing platforms and areas to the central hub were lit, as were the various buildings and perimeters. Both of Horobis' white moons hung high in the sky.

Bumblebee ejected the blanket he kept in a subspace pocket and spread it out where they would have a nice view, while Carly took her lunch and a sphere of energon from her pack. It wasn't much of a picnic, not like she and Spike used to have, when they'd down a liter of soda and devour mountains of sandwiches. But that was Earth. This was Horobis. At least she was discovering the things she could eat and what was unsuitable or poisonous.

"I'm so glad you're working in the laundry now. You seem happier with it," Bumblebee said.

"I am. It's so much better without that monster in the kitchen yelling at me all the time. I don't know what the plant creature said to him, but whatever it was it seemed to shut him up. And I'm sorry if I've been depressed. This whole experience of getting lost in space has just been one heck of a time for me."

"I understand. And I guess I've somewhat neglected you the past few days. I have been spending a lot of time with Vashi."

"What for?"

"I told you, she's my girlfriend now."

"Well she'd better not be charging you. That's how she makes her living you know."

Bumblebee reacted defensively. "She's not a prostitute. None of the hostesses are."

"Well then if you're not paying her, what's she see in you? You're some strange robot from the other side of the galaxy."

"She likes robots. And I help her wash off her cosmetics after a shift. And then rub her feet while she soaks in the tub. And I listen to her while she tells me about all the ugly alien men she had to entertain over her shift. _That's_ what she likes me for."

"She's using you."

"Well, no...there are other things too... She does things for me."

"Oh? What are you getting out of it?"

Bumblebee chuckled nervously. "She...likes to interface."

Carly almost dropped the sandwich she was eating, the very last one that had had been brought from Earth. "She's a robot?"

"No...not a robot. She's organic. We...do it her way. I'm flexible."

Carly felt herself blushing and she wasn't sure why. She was vaguely aware of the way the Autobots showed love and intimacy for each other. But to think of his steel and alloy body all over that softly scaled organic one was rather weird. And what sort of connection were they making? She tried push aside the images threatening to form of the two of them 'interfacing'."

"So you just give her a bath and then take her to bed?"

"Pretty much," said Bumblebee, suddenly feeling a bit guilty about the time spent with the lizardess. "Though sometimes we'll go out for a walk along the street. She loves the way everyone turns to look at her when she's dressed up. And she gets such a thrill when little girls will run up to her and ask her to touch their faces. There's a Taliseet superstition that beauty rubs off."

Suddenly she wondered if Bumblebee was teasing her, but looking over at him and spotting the guilty tilt to his eyes, visible even in the moonlight, she realized he was completely honest. "So no, she's not using me. I get something out of it too. And I do like hanging out with her."

Carly grimaced and went back to eating her sandwich. "At least you do. Well good. Good for you, to have made a close friend here."

Bumblebee wriggled a little closer, sensing what was going through her head. "Look, I know everything must be hard for you. You and Spike have been inseparable over the past few months. And now to lose him so suddenly, and to know you won't see him again for who knows how many more months." He reached over and took her hand. "And now here you are stuck on this rock in the middle of nowhere, working hard for a chance to return home, and everything's so strange and weird. I'm sorry if I've not been paying enough attention to you. Sometimes I forget how isolated you are because of the language thing. I'm the only one you have to talk to, well, and the tentacle plant thing, but he's a guest so it's not like you get to spend any time together. So I hope you'll forgive me and let me step back into your life. I know I tend to get carried away with being everyone's friend."

Carly suddenly felt bad for being jealous. "It's okay, and I'm sorry, 'Bee. I don't mean to be selfish, or to interfere with your love life. It's just that getting stuck here has gotten me down so much."

Bumblebee reached over to her, pulled her into a one-armed embrace. "I've just not been giving you the attention you need. Vashi's been receiving it."

Carly blushed again. "I didn't quite mean it like that."

"If you want, I'll break it off with her."

"No. You don't have to. I know you had a few lovers back on Earth and you probably miss them too. If she makes you happy, I shouldn't mind."

"But you do mind. And you needn't try to be so strong and independent. We have each other to lean on. "

She tried not to cry, but a few tears, some of hundreds shed in the past week, fell before she could stop them. "I think it's just because I miss Spike."

"Oh Carly." Bumblebee picked her up and cradled her in his arms. "Please don't worry. I can't do anything about what's happened, but I can try to make things easier for you. Spike is my best friend, and I should be the one to replace him while he's away. Would you let me until we return to Earth?"

"I'm not sure that's quite what I need..." The images of him and Vashi in bed together tried to form again.

"No, not in a romantic way. I just look after you more closely and be there when you need it. No more letting you fall asleep alone when you clearly need to be held and to know that someone's there for you."

Carly smiled up at him. How did he know all the right things to say? "Bumblebee...it's no wonder everyone loves you."

He gave her a hug and kissed the top of her head. "I'm just happy to have the chance to love you back."

He set her down and she finished eating in silence. And afterward they sat there for some time, watching three spaceships take off and five more land. The flurry of lights that rose around them as various service crews rolled out to meet them was always interesting. Like the garden at the hotel, the view was beautiful and helped them to forget the frustration of being so far from home and away from their lives and loves.

In time Carly fell asleep curled up against Bumblebee, emotionally exhausted again, but this time it there was a more positive feeling through it.

-o-o-o-o-o-

They were surprised to find two identical envelopes slipped under their door in the morning. Bumblebee, awake first as usual, had opened his and read it carefully, and was astounded to find that it contained an invitation from Vaallo.

"A party? Really? When?" Carly asked when she woke herself. Bumblebee had told her of the contents before she even opened hers.

"Tomorrow. It starts during third shift. But it's supposed to go on well into fourth quarter. I guess Vaallo's people like long parties. And it's being held on one of the docked ships in the space port."

"What language is yours written in? Mine's in English."

"Mine's in Pelagian. That's the language I've been using with him and the others like him at the baths. I looked up the registry of the ship currently on the platform listed on the invitation. It's a Den-Tash cargo-liner, so I looked them up. Den-Tash is a major transport company. They run cargo fleets all over this galaxy. Then I looked up his name in the spaceport registry, and learned a bit about this Vaallo."

"Oh?

"He's not just Vaallo. He's Captain Vakkaame Vaallo of the Eighteenth Fleet of Aolen, Chief Officer of the cargo-liner Third Horizon."

Carly was startled."A captain? Oh my gosh! I thought he was just some moldy lump of pasta alien."

"His race is Yiaan. They're a plant-type race, an ancient one at that. Noted explorers and pioneers, oddly enough. You mentioned those bracelets? They weren't bracelets. They were rank insignia. Because of their body shape, they wear anything like that on their eye-stalks. That's what scared Godzilla."

Carly looked again at her invitation. The handwriting on the front read 'Miss Carly, Laundry Maid, Garden Paradise Hotel,' which she giggled at. A degree from MIT and she was bleaching sheets and folding towels. "So the captain of a trade vessel is inviting lowly little me to a shipboard party. What's yours say?"

"Mine's addressed to 'Bumblebee, Garden Bath Attendant, Garden Paradise Hotel'."

The girl suddenly stiffened with another thought. "I hope my clothes are okay to wear to the party. I don't have anything besides what I left Earth with, and my work uniforms."

"Maybe Vashi could loan you something? If your clothes aren't really appropriate for a party here?" Despite the fact that he didn't own a scrap of clothing, he always found the layers the humans protected themselves with quite interesting, and he'd caught on to the fact that certain garments were appropriate or inappropriate for differing occasions.

"That's a good idea. She's not that much taller than I am, is she?" She looked up at Bumblebee, suddenly grateful that the Autobot had established a relationship with the lizardess.

"She has lots of clothes and jewelry. She needs them for her job."

Carly had to agree. In the time they'd been here, she didn't think she'd seen Vashi wear the same thing more than once. "Good, because I don't know who else to go to for help. I don't have any money yet, or any friends here at all, besides you. And you're as much of a stranger as I am."

"I'll ask her when I see her. Usually she comes by the baths a couple times during a shift...though usually with a guest, but I think I could work in a moment to talk to her."

"Thank you, 'Bee. Just tell her I need some of her help getting ready for a party. Though I'm guessing it's not going to be that formal or exclusive of a party if he's inviting lowly hotel workers like us to it."

"Or maybe he's hiring us to come tend the buffet table."

"He probably wants you to run the valet parking," she laughed.

"Well maybe it's not much of a ship. Maybe he just hauls garbage from one side of the octant to the other and he has a crew of cyberrats."

"Possibly." Being a captain doesn't always mean that much. And then she noticed the time on the wall. "Ooh...we need to get showered and ready for work."

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Stung continues in Chapter 6: "The Third Horizon"**

Jazz befriends an alien tribe of primates. Carly and Bumblebee are invited to a party aboard Captain Vaallo's ship. Turns out the sentient mass of tentacles isn't piloting a garbage scow. And Carly looks great in Bumblebee's girlfriend's clothes...even Bumblebee thinks so.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Thank you for reading! Feedback and communication is appreciated by any author. Send me a PM and I'll write back! Promise!

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Author Notes**

**A degree from MIT and...** – A running gag begins! Watch for it a few more times through the story.

**Vaallo** – I envision the Yiaan race pretty much as Carly sees it...the unholy result of breeding an aloe to a dish of pasta. I wanted to take the old tentacle monster cliché and play with it a bit, giving us a protagonist instead of a monster. Watch for tentacle non-rape scenes to come! If this were the 1950's, he'd just be some sexy middle aged man with a funky costume to designate that he was an alien. But hey, this is 2015! We're ready (maybe) to accept this sort of character.

**Autobots/Alien Women** – The mentions here are all canon, from the G1 episodes "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide," "Sea Change," "Auto Bop," and "The God Gambit." I'm not making them up, and there are plenty of fanfics addressing these relationships.

**Laundry** – When in college I worked in a hotel laundry room and cleaned rooms. I write a lot from experience. Did I mention the time I was stuck on an alien planet?

**Bumblebee/Vashi** – Xenophilia! If you don't like it...you might not want to read the rest of this story. Bumblebee ends up in the sack with three different alien women over the course of it, including Carly. She's an alien to him, after all.

**Vashi's Wardrobe** – She needs the outfits for work, but probably spends most of her money on clothes. She's a clothes horse, but always looks fabulous. You probably know someone like this.

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


	6. The Third Horizon

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 6: The Third Horizon**

-o-o-o-o-o-

Jazz came out of the river, having washed the dust out of his chassis, the monkey-men scattering playfully before him. The primates, slightly smaller than humans, had taken a great interest in him once they'd decided him not a threat.

And then they noticed the fish in his hands. He placed it before them at their fire and smiled. "Fish. Gift. Eat," he explained, using their language. He'd begun to pick it up quickly—all verbs and nouns with a few adjectives thrown in for variety.

Jazz smiled again and watched as they pounced on it, butchering the fish with their stone knives and threading pieces of it onto sticks, which they then roasted over their fire.

He sat down with them and watched them eat. They were definitely some sort of primate—half-hairy and tribal, but with a natural curiosity and a gentle social nature. Their stone tools were advanced, their agriculture was off to a good start, and they had some form of shamanistic religion. But metal had not been forged yet and the wheel still eluded them. Pottery was another advancement yet to come.

But he still had no idea where he was. Some alien planet somewhere with reddish moon that bore a resemblance to a deflated basketball. Nothing in his data banks matched such a moon though. His radio wasn't strong enough to call home. The others were gone. At least he'd made friends here with these primitive people, who found his metal hide fascinating, and their usual greeting now was to thump his leg plating with a fist, generating a loud bonging noise, which delighted them to no end.

The fish was gone quickly, and even the carcass had been slung onto a stick and roasted over the fire for anyone who wanted more. And as they sat about licking their fingers and wiping their faces with grass, one of the women took a piece of cold charcoal from the edge of their fire pit. She studied Jazz's chest for a moment, and then using the charcoal drew the same glyph the Autobot wore onto the chest of her mate, an Arabic numeral four in thick black lines.

"Hey, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," Jazz laughed.

The people all looked at him, trying to understand what he'd said.

Jazz grinned again and pointed to the marked chest. "Good," he translated.

It wasn't long before the rest of the group had marked themselves with the human symbol. They were now officially his people.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Carly sat in Vashi's room, letting the lizardess paint her face with cosmetics. And then Vashi dressed her in some of her robes, of which she had several clothing racks full. Next she opened a box and removed a headdress, and with a few adjustments to the band she found it fit Carly well enough. Carly looked at herself in the mirror and was stunned by the effect of Vashi's dressing. She wore three of the sheer robes—one white, one robin's egg blue, and one a medium blue. Underneath was a slip-like dress of bright blue, the sides slit up to the waist. And while the headdress was rather reserved compared to the one Vashi was wearing, it was still quite elaborate, looking much like the beaded, bejeweled, and befeathered headwear of 1920's Hollywood.

Vashi had been invited to the party as well, as had several of the other hotel employees. The hostess was already decked out in her finery, wearing three sheer robes in red, orange, and yellow and a tall headdress of dangling golden beads.

A knock came on the door. "Are you ready?" called Bumblebee's voice.

"Just about," answered Vashi. "Come in. It's unlocked."

The Autobot did, and he was stunned to find Carly looking as Vashi did for work. "Carly! That's amazing! Look at you!" He liked the way her face had been painted, halved across the eyes with a black line, her eyelids and forehead being painted a blue to match her gowns, and the cheeks below the line being painted with a rosy blush, to which some accenting circles of thick white paper outlined in black had been pasted.

"Like it?" she asked, holding out her arms and giving him a little twirl. "I'm a lizard geisha now."

"That's such a beautiful outfit. And that make-up is so...so...perfect." He patted Vashi's shoulder gently. "Thank you, Vashi, for your help. She looks lovely."

"I wish I could do something with her hair, but I'm not any good with it. I don't have any of my own," Vashi giggled. "But I gave her one of my headdresses to wear." The lizardess smiled and took his hand. "Well let's get going. No need to be later than we already are."

The three hurried out to the front of the hotel and stopped at the curb. Vashi looked up and down the street, hoping to catch one of the taxi shuttles that plied the town spaceport.

"Autobots, transform and roll out!" Carly barked, imitating Optimus Prime's voice as best she could.

With a laugh, Bumblebee switched to his vehicular mode and flung his doors open.

Vashi gaped. "So that's why your body's that shape. I wondered why you were so bulky! Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Get in!" called Carly, going to the driver's side and jumping into the seat.

"And all this time I've been getting taxi's for us," Vashi moaned and slapped the dashboard.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Bumblebee followed the directions on the invitation, heading out to the designated landing pad. Their invitations got them through the first two checkpoints, though after seeing the faces of the security staff as they ogled Carly, and Vashi even more so, he decided that showing the invitations had probably been unnecessary. There at the final checkpoint, they got out and had their names double-checked against the guest list. "Ask him which ship is the Third Horizon" Carly instructed Bumblebee as she scrutinized the row of spaceships on the landing pads surrounding the hub where the checkpoint sat.

"Third Horizon?" The Horobian security guard turned and pointed. "That one. The big one."

"The big bronze-colored one?" Bumblebee clarified.

The guard nodded.

"Carly, I don't think Captain Vaallo's piloting a garbage scow," he breathed and pointed as the guards had. "It's that big bronze one at the back."

"That one? That thing's...ginormous...as Jazz would say."

"No kidding."

The craft stood on the outermost pad, illuminated from below by floodlights, its metallic skin glowing invitingly.

"It's a Valashian-built ultra-cargo ship," supplied Vashi. "The largest ship built that can make a planet-side landing."

"You knew he captained this?" Bumblebee asked. The Third Horizon was at least three times the size of the Autobot Ark. "We knew he was a captain, but had no idea that his ship was...so big."

She just gave him a teasing wink and clutched his arm.

"Just follow the green roadway lights to the cargo ramps. They'll tell you where to go from there, said the security guard.

Bumblebee transformed and the two girls got inside of his passenger compartment again. "I can't believe that's really his ship," Carly continued to gasp. "And to think that once I thought he was just some tentacle monster who could speak English. Why ever does he come to the hotel and stay there if he's got a ship like this?"

"Probably the same reason a lot of the space crews do. When you're stuck aboard a craft for months on end, it must be nice to escape to the gardens of the hotel. It's a little paradise where you can smell the flowers and stare at the sky and listen to the wind."

"I guess that makes sense."

Bumblebee pulled up at the bottom of the cargo ramp and transformed once the girls had exited. A host in uniform pointed the way inside, and they were astounded on reaching the main cargo deck of the Third Horizon. The cargo bay was open front and back to the night, a space so large Carly estimated that the Autobots could have parked their Ark inside of it were it not for the three rows of pillars running across it. There was cargo loaded aboard...huge crates and several smaller space ships, but there was plenty of room left for a party in the hold.

Vashi immediately recognized another of the hostesses from the Garden Paradise Hotel, and taking Bumblebee's hand she dragged him over to where she, also dolled up in her finery, was chatting with a group of Valashians in uniform.

Carly sighed and let them go, Bumblebee giving her an apologetic look over his shoulder. Perhaps if she could find Vaallo, she would have someone to talk to. And she did find him—at the center of the party, surrounded by Yiaan and other crewmen. A tall golden-scaled Taliseet woman hanging on his arm...well, one of his tentacles.

So Carly wandered over to the buffet, hoping to find something to eat. There were a lot of salads and fruits and pastries on the long table, and she was stunned to find a bowl of raspberries...real honest to goodness raspberries. She quickly dished a number of them onto her plate, and then on popping one into her mouth she sighed with pleasure. What were raspberries doing here aboard a giant alien freighter? And then she noticed celery and carrots as well. Vaallo had mentioned that his people had been on Earth, and that he himself had visited. That had to be the connection.

She took her plate and sat at one of the lower tables and did her best not to inhale the raspberries. They weren't the best she'd ever had, but they were delicious and comforting all the same. The carrots were sweet and the celery was crisp, and she enjoyed every bite.

A pair of Valashians came over with their plates, sat down, smiled, and greeted her. And as much as she would have liked to start up a conversation with them, the lack of a shared language prevented it. Her few words of Pelagian didn't go very far but they seemed to understand.

Across the area, Bumblebee was being Mr. Popular with both of the hostesses now hanging on his arms. And when the band came back from break, the two dragged him out onto the dance floor and started to have some fun with him there.

Carly sighed and tried to content herself with watching the others and enjoying the unexpected vegetable delights of Earth. The mix of aliens was interesting after all. There were creatures of quite a few races, many of which she didn't recognize. She'd seen Vaallo and a few other Yiaan at the hotel, but there were three present of a different appearance. Instead of the solid or lightly banded green skin she knew, the ends of their tentacles and their eyestalks were gaily colored. One was purple. One was orange. One was pink. And behind their eyestalks were what appeared to be flowers. At first she thought they were ornaments, like the headresses the hostesses and the other women wore, but when the purple one came over and began talking to the Valashians at her table, she saw that the flowers were actually part of the creature's body. And from them wafted a remarkably sweet perfume.

Perhaps they were female. Or perhaps of a different race of Yiaan. Or maybe they were of some different but oddly similar alien race. If only Vaallo weren't so occupied, she could ask him. But every time she looked over at him he was surrounded by friends and crewmates.

One of the Valashians was noticing that Carly didn't have a drink, and so at one point, he took her hand and led her over to the bar, where a bartender stood amidst a wide variety of punchbowls and bottles of all sizes and colors. There was even a bowl full of energon spheres. The Valashian tapped his fingers in front of a bottle, and the bartender poured him a glass of the contents. And then he encouraged Carly to do the same. She looked at the bottles timidly, and was about to try to get some water when she noticed one of a familiar shape. She couldn't read the label, save for the fact that it contained a Chardonnay from France. Stunned again, she tapped the table enthusiastically and the bartender poured a glass for her. Excited, she sipped it immediately. It was exactly what it said—French white wine.

She returned to her table and went back to her people-watching, one of the Valashians coming back with a plate of raspberries, carrots, celery, and salad for her. Apparently he'd been watching what the alien beauty had been eating, and she thanked him. At least she knew how to do that in Pelagian. Later he brought her another glass of wine.

And after her third glass of Chardonnay, she looked up to find Vaallo standing before her. "Miss Carly, you look lovely."

Carly stood and blushed...not that anyone could see a blush under all the makeup. "Oh, Captain Vallo," she answered, almost surprised that he'd recognized her.

"Horobian clothing suits you very well."

"Oh, thank you. Bumblebee's girlfriend loaned me a dress to wear."

"She chose well." He looked over to where Bumblebee and Vashi were dancing together. "Ah...Vashi. She is a delight." And then he extended a hand toward the human girl. "May I dance with you? I've finally managed to get a moment to say hello and now they finally seem to be playing something suitably slow enough for me to dance to." Yiaan moved slowly on their six short pedes, though their tentacles could move with surprising rapidity.

Carly giggled and took his hand. "All right."

She followed the captain onto the floor and let him lead her through what seemed to be a slow waltz more or less. Another slow song followed, and the two continued to dance. Carly loved the way the Captain spun her from a tentacle raised above her head, and how when she'd stumble on the sandals...their size just a bit too large for her feet, he would steady her about the waist with another limb.

But then the band picked up the tempo and Vaallo led Carly away to the side of the party, and he stood glancing about the hold. "So what do you think of my ship?" he asked.

"It's amazing. Bumblebee and I saw it from the mesa above Hax Horobis two nights ago, but we had no idea that it was yours, or that we've ever be aboard it. I'd love to see the engines some time." She gestured up to the ceiling of the cargo bay. "And those cranes up there for moving cargo in and out...genius! I've been staring at them since we got here."

He crooked a single eye at her. "Oh? What interest would you have in engines and cranes?"

"Mechanical things interest me. That's how I met Bumblebee in the first place. I wanted to see some real robots. Earth's cybernetics are nowhere close to their level...yet."

"Oh? Really?"

"They're visiting aliens on Earth. I couldn't resist trying to meet one."

Vaallo laughed and he shambled a little further away from the party, leading her by the hand. "And here I thought you were just a pretty face."

"Not to sound too full of myself, but I do have a degree from one of the top technical universities on Earth."

Vaallo's eyes swiveled to look at her. "I am surprised, Miss Carly. So much for you just being a scullery maid."

"A laundry maid now, thanks to you," she corrected teasingly. "My degree is coming in most handy—I appreciate you getting me a job in thermodynamics and hydrology—not my exact focus of study, but close enough. But anything to get away from that kitchen manager."

Vaallo laughed at her joke. "You'll be home soon enough and back in your element. I see you found the wine. I was hoping you might like it."

"You put that on the drinks table...for me?"

"I thought something familiar might bring a smile to your face. I didn't know if you liked wine though."

"I do. I like a glass of wine now and then. And...were you responsible for the raspberries and the carrots and the celery too?"

"I could lie and say 'yes' to impress you. But no, the gardeners just brought in what was ripe and ready to eat."

"Gardeners? Here in Hax Horobis?"

"No-no...aboard the Third Horizon. We do grow some fresh food here on the observation rings."

"It was wonderful. I thought I was seeing things at first."

At that point someone called to Vaallo, and they looked to see a Valashian officer heading over. Three Yiaan were waiting at the edge of the party area—the pink one and the purple one and a green one. Vaallo took one of Carly's hands in two of his and he smiled. "Thank you for coming tonight. It looks like I'm about to be pulled away and chances are I won't get to talk to you again. So I'll wish you a sweet goodnight. And I'll look you up the next time I'm in port, if you haven't returned home yet."

"Thank you for inviting Bumblebee and me. It was nice to get out and do something tonight...and to have some Earth foods."

Vaallo smiled and patted her hand. She got the feeling that he would have liked to kiss it, but his Yinnic physiology would make it awkward. He departed, and she returned to her table.

The party continued, more guests arriving and the band playing on and on. At some point Bumblebee came over with a few Yiaan, saying "These guys speak English too." Suddenly Carly was surrounded in a cluster of greenery, the three all excitedly asking her about Earth and the places she'd been. And after two more hours, Bumblebee had to extract her from their clutches, so he could take her and Vashi home once more.

Carly and Vashi fell asleep on the drive back to the Garden Paradise Hotel, so Bumblebee drove as gently as possible. If it had been a long distance, he would have pulled to the side of the road and joined them in recharge. How many times had he done that with Spike back on Earth? Coming up to the curb at the hotel, he jostled them awake and out onto the street. The two girls staggered out and he transformed. "We're home," he said and led them in, waving at the clerks manning the front desk.

"Oh Bumblebee, that was so much fun," Carly yawned once back in their room.

"It was good to see you having so much fun. You've needed a chance to let off some steam."

"And there was wine! Real wine from Earth! And the Captain even sent a bottle to my table for me to take home," she said, cradling her prize before setting it onto the low shelf. She began to undress, stripping off the layers of clothing Vashi had put her in. And when she noticed that Bumblebee was watching her, she hummed and made a little dance of it. That real wine from Earth hadn't worn off yet.

He smiled at her playfulness and hummed along. "I took lots of pictures at the party to show Spike when we get back. I know he'll want to see you dressed in native garb."

"Native garb? You make it sound so exotic. It's just what Vashi wears to work."

"It is exotic. I've not seen too many Earthlings dressed that way...if any."

"And it's beautiful," she said, folding it into a neat pile as best she could. The sheer fabric, slightly stiff, had something of a mind of its own.

"Well lets go wash off your makeup before you go to bed, shall we?"

Carly giggled. "You just don't know when to stop doing your job, do you?"

"I guess not," he chortled.

In the bath he sat her on his thigh under the showerhead and washed her face while she hummed another tune. And when Vashi came in she wanted the same treatment. And so did some of the other employees that had also attended the party. Bumblebee was in too good of a mood to turn anyone down. The party had brightened them all up.

Carly decided that she would fall asleep in the soaking tubs if she even walked past one, and so went back to their room. By the time Bumblebee was finished, she was sound asleep in the middle of their bed. Bumblebee rolled her onto her side of the mattress so he could lie next to her. "Mmmm... 'Bee. You're the best. You take such good care of me."

"Just until we're home again and Spike can have his job back."

"But by then I'm going to be spoiled by all your attention. You're raising the bar. He's never given me a bath or washed off my makeup. Not like you do."

She said nothing else but fell right back asleep. Bumblebee stayed awake a while longer watching her in the near darkness, his optics adjusted to a low-light setting. Maybe it was wrong to work so hard to please her. After all, she'd had a life before she'd met him and Spike. What if she was right about raising the bar? What if he was setting Spike up for failure once they were back on Earth?

He placed a hand around her waist and pulled Carly in closer. Well so what? With things as they were, she deserved a bit of extra attention. And he was ready to provide it to her. Once they were back, things would return to just as they had been before the space bridge accident.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"**Stung" continues in Chapter 7: "The Day the Storm Hit" **Bumblebee sends a message home to the Autobots on Earth. The return message contains a special present for Bumblebee from the lover he left behind. But bad news has come with the good. On researching transport home, the plan to return to Earth has hit a snag.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Thank you for reading! If you like a story, let the author know with a follow, a favorite, or a PM...it encourages them to keep writing!

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

**Author Notes**

**Jazz's People** – They're a pre-pottery Neolithic civilization. More about them in future chapters.

**1920's Headdresses** – Some of these got amazingly elaborate for theater and film spectaculars. I can just imagine Vashi having a bunch of them on head-stands in her room, something pretty to cover her bald scales with.

**Taxi Service** – I think Bumblebee would have been having a good time not having to drive his girlfriend around since he pretty much spends half his time with Spike and Carly doing that

**Earth Foods** – There will be more on why these things are aboard Vaallo's ship in later chapters.

**Pedes** – I have to say it. Robots have feet. Yiaan have pedes. Sometimes the fanon and/or techniques in this category bugs me.

**Raising the Bar** – Oh, just wait until we get to Chapter 9. There's no way Carly will ever want to go back to a plain old human being after... well... never mind.

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


	7. The Day the Rainstorm Hit

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 7: The Day the Storm Hit**

-o-o-o-o-o-

Bumblebee's wages had cleared through the bank and he felt wealthy suddenly, a notable sum having filled a previously empty account. Up until now they'd been spending all of his tip money for things they needed. So after first shift the next day, Bumblebee and Carly went to the spaceport terminal to send their message home to Earth. But first he took Carly to lunch at one of the cafes in the spaceport, surprised to find one with quite a few dishes she recognized as edible to her. And over lunch they composed messages to the Autobots, some private...some public. There were pictures too. The hotel. The gardens. Carly sleeping. Carly folding laundry. Racki and her scrub-brushes. Racki engulfing Bumblebee in her plasm. Vashi in her finery. Carly in Vashi's finery. Hax Horobis at night from the mesa above it. He put them all together with a couple of video recordings Bumblebee had made. There was even one of Carly dancing with Captain Vaallo at the party the night before. "Spike's going to love that, seeing his girlfriend having fun with some other man," he teased.

"I somehow don't think he'll get jealous of a blob of green spaghetti. Besides, Spike's like you guys. He's not the jealous sort."

"Smokescreen's going to wish he were here when he sees Vashi. He likes that sort of look to his women."

"Reptilian? Colorful?"

Bumblebee grinned. "Yes."

"And apparently you do too."

"Yes, but I didn't realize it I did until I met her."

Carly laughed and finished her salad. "You don't have to spend less time with her, and she has been a good friend to us. I guess I was just getting needy. I've felt better since we talked, and talking to Vaallo and his crew last night was really nice. I didn't feel so left out."

"I'm glad. What did you talk about? Long goodbyes since they're leaving tonight?"

"Quite a bit actually, though mostly about Earth. Most of the Yiaan in that crew have been to Earth, which is kind of a creepy thought. But they love our planet, especially Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands." She picked up the herbal tea she'd ordered and sipped thoughtfully. "They like humans, but they're disappointed that we've not embraced life beyond our own atmosphere as a whole yet. I told them that was changing, in part to you Cybertronians, and that probably within a century we'd get over our insularity. They were happy to hear that—they're rather long-lived for organics. Six-hundred...seven hundred years." She set her tea down and leaned back into her chair with a little giggle. "It was kinda funny though. They spoke English with an Australian accent. Not a strong one, but definitely Australian. Some of that dialect too. Vaallo has something of a French accent."

"Interesting. I wonder if that's where they were on Earth."

"I'd guess it was. I'm glad I got to thank Captain Vaallo again last night, for his saving me from Godzilla. And we got to dance, and he even snuck me away from the party to talk for a while. I'm kinda sad to see him go."

"Who wouldn't have wanted to talk to you? You looked so pretty in those clothes. We should get you a Horobian party dress while you're here."

"But that would take a lot of our travel money. I don't think those clothes Vashi wears are cheap."

"Doesn't matter. We'll just work a little longer. Maybe I could pick up some extra shifts or something. Getting back alone will take several months. Besides, we'll never see this planet again once we leave."

"Such a long way..." she sighed and went back to her bowl of seasoned grain.

"You know, I think it's going to rain," said Bumblebee, changing the subject, his optics looking out of the cafe window. The day had begun sunny, but from the west over the jagged mountains a heavy bank of dark cloud had been moving ever closer, having originally been behind the peaks, but now was scraping the tops of them.

"They do look like storm clouds."

"Vashi said that when it rains here, it really rains."

"Oh?" Carly picked at the last few noodles on her plate and thought of Vaallo again.

"She said that there's no such thing as light rain. It's either fully on or fully off," he chuckled.

As Bumblebee paid the bill for their meal, the sunshine disappeared behind the flat, grey clouds that formed the thin, leading edge of the storm. Then they headed off in the direction of the communications office to send the information packet to Earth. While he saw to that, Carly waited outside studying one of the terminal's information boards.

The departure/arrivals boards, normally a peaceful wash of pale blue Pelagian text on black, were now peppered with entries in orange and green. Her eyes scanned for the docking area for the Third Horizon, and noted that next to the ship name was a countdown timer. The text was in orange.

When Bumblebee came back out, she asked for a translation. "Looks like the Third Horizon's taking off early today," he said. "A number of the ships here appear to be either delayed or have been bumped up. That big block of orange text at the top is a storm warning. I guess it _is_ going to rain."

Carly looked at the board again and tried to convert the timer into Earth time. "Let's see...if I'm right, the Third Horizon should be taking off in...about half an hour!" she gasped. "Ooh! Lets go up to the observation tower and watch it take off!"

"Hey, good idea," Bumblebee agreed.

They took the moving walkway and an elevator to the spaceport's observation tower, a glass-walled deck some six stories up from which they could see the town and landing pads spread about. They easily spotted the Third Horizon, the huge caramel-colored ship sitting out on the edge of the pads. It was well lit and the support vehicles and structures that had surrounded it had all been pulled away. The ominous-looking bank of dark cloud now hung over the high bluffs to the west.

Bumblebee and Carly sat on one of the benches. There were other observers in the tower as well, watching some of the smaller ships take off and commenting on the approaching storm. Intracloud lighting was now visible. Everyone followed along on the departures/arrivals board, countdown timers being the key to where action would happen next. Some of the arrivals were posted in green, which meant they'd been delayed as well. From what they could tell, there were at least five ships hanging in orbit waiting until the storm passed. Four were posted in purple, which meant they'd been diverted to Torix Horobis, a smaller, less commercial spaceport on the other side of the planet.

As the countdown timer for the Third Horizon approached zero, Bumblebee and Carly went to the window and watched as the ship's engines lit up and the rest of the craft darkened, save for what they guessed would be the bridge, which sat bubble-like atop the hull. "If I had Cosmos' or Bluestreak's optics, I could probably see Vaallo up there," commented Bumblebee when their conversation turned that way.

"Really? Their eyes are that good?"

"Easily. A few others have the high-end optics too. Ratchet throws a fit when one of them gets busted in the face. Circuits and lenses like that are difficult to replace...if they can even find the parts to replace them with."

They waited breathlessly as the countdown time reached zero and the engines of the Third Horizon roared to life, the sound audible in the tower even though the craft was a couple miles away. And they watched in awe as the craft rose into the sky, visibly ruffling the front edge of the oncoming storm. The observers all murmured with approval and amazement.

The Third Horizon lifted through the clouds, leaving a swirling hole behind it through which the tattered edge of the storm swirled upwards.

"I wonder if we'll see him again," Bumblebee mused.

"I don't know, but I'd like to."

The first bolts of lightning were striking the western navigational towers that stood sentinel on the hills when one of the spaceport security guards came up and asked everyone to leave the tower because of the oncoming storm. While some of the others protested, in particular the group of Taliseet adolescents that had obviously been planning to weather the tempest in dramatic style atop the observation deck, the rest headed back down to the terminal. "Let's go to the travel office and see about passage home, shall we? Now that we have money coming in I suppose it's time to start looking into that."

"You're just full of good ideas today," laughed Carly, taking Bumblebee's hand.

"I do my best," he smiled back.

As the sky overhead began to darken, Bumblebee found an office that advertised "cheap transport to anywhere." On translating the sign for her, Carly remarked that this seemed to be just what they were looking for. The office wasn't busy, and so they went in, waited a bit to talk to an agent, and then took a seat with a Taliseet woman who was unusually solid black in color. Carly sat next to Bumblebee, leafing through a stack of travel and resort guides while Bumblebee did the talking as always. Around them the sound of closing shutters and vents punctuated the usual quiet of the terminal. Businesses and offices were closing up as the wind began to rise. On the street outside merchants hurriedly wheeled in their outdoor displays, and the curbside merchants dropped their shutters. Everyone seemed to know what was coming.

As Bumblebee and the woman talked, screen after screen of travel information coming up for them on her computer display, the first crack and crash of thunder hit, a bolt connecting with the spaceport's control tower. The electric lights flickered for a moment, causing everyone in the office to pause briefly and look up. Moments later work resumed, only for everyone to pause again as the approaching wall of rain slammed against the building with unexpected force. The black-scaled woman cringed, as did most of the others in the room, including Carly. The noise from the metal roof was deafening, and Bumblebee ended up on the same side of the desk so the conversation could continue without them having to shout.

Carly moved over to the window that overlooked the street. The low spots in the normally dry, dusty pavement were already turning into puddles, and the gutters began to run with muddy water. She wondered how the gardens at the hotel would fare against the assault. Would those gauzy shades be nothing but tatters hanging across the courtyard once thethe storm had passed?

A blinding flash of lightning filled the room for a moment, followed seconds later by the tear and rumble of the thunder. Bumblebee came over to look out the window as most of the people in the office were doing now. The gutters were so full of water that they were beginning to crest the curb in several places. Outside the terminal, the closely spaced drains that had once seemed ridiculous on this desert planet now defended their existence as they swallowed the heavy rain into slurping vortexes.

The deluge continued another fifteen minutes before lessening, and in another fifteen minutes it had come to a stop.

Carly wandered back from the window to find that Bumblebee had finished with the agent and was standing near the door. Instead of the usually sunny look he wore, there was frustration and disappointment.

"Bad news?"

The sad face nodded and he walked out into the central corridor of the terminal. They went over to one of the benches and Bumblebee sat heavily, leaning forward with his elbows upon his knees.

"Really bad news?"

The robot vented and looked over at her. "Not 'really' bad. Just disappointing."

"How much is it going to cost to get home?"

"A lot...because there aren't any direct routes between here and familiar space."

"That doesn't sound good."

"We can catch a flight from here to Boltrax Eighty, which is a major hub. And then from there we can get one to Outpost Pandless. And from Outpost Pandless we can catch another flight to Gloron III, where Cosmos could pick us up."

"Wow, that sounds really roundabout."

"Yeah...and that's the most direct route we can get without hiring a private charter."

Carly slumped and took Bumblebee's hand. "Do I even want to know how long it will take to make that journey?"

"Well, if we can catch a high-speed flight from Boltrax to Pandless, it would only take about four months total. A slower ship would take about six or seven months, but the cost would be much less."

"Private charter?"

"Four times the cost."

Carly groaned. "So either we spend our time working here on Horobis or sitting around on a spaceship."

"Essentially. Either way, we won't be home for nearly a year."

Carly tried not to cry. As they'd discussed before, this wasn't even close to the worst thing that could have happened to them, but still they'd both rather be back with their own kind.

For quite a while they sat on the bench, leaning against each other for comfort, hands petting each other in a mutual need for reassurance. When Carly yawned a second time, they decided to head back to the hotel and get some sleep. Together they walked the freshly washed streets, the rain having let up, leaving behind a humid mist. The water in the gutters, raging torrents not so long ago, had dwindled to mere trickles.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Four Horobian days later, as Bumblebee and Carly were having their post-shift meal in the employee break room, a message came in via the interstellar telegram office. "It's from Optimus!" Bumblebee exclaimed on seeing the sender's name. They had been waiting anxiously for a reply since having sent their message to Earth. He quickly pulled out a data pad, plugged it into himself with one of the cables in his wrist and brought up the main video file.

There were Optimus and Spike, the two of them at Optimus' desk, and a few other Autobots behind them almost jostling each other to get on screen. "Greetings from Earth," Optimus began. "I cannot tell you what a relief it was to get your messages. We're glad to hear that you're all right and managing to fend for yourselves on a strange world." He paused as if taking a breath. "Horobis... You're an inexplicable distance from Earth. When the message came in and we looked up where you were, we were shocked. We had no idea that the space bridge could even operate over such a distance."

"Thanks for testing it for us!" chirped Wheeljack, leaning into the shot, fins flashing merrily. "Now if I can just figure out how it sent you so far."

Other hands grabbed him and dragged him back, hissing disapproval at his sense of humor.

"Apparently the Decepticons, finding they couldn't keep us from using the bridge, came up with a little sub-program as a deterrent. It took us a bit to figure it out too, and we've still not been able to counteract it. Basically, anyone that isn't carrying a certain operational key gets sent to the wrong coordinates. Ingenious really. We suspect Shockwave is behind it."

"Unauthorized passengers are sent unpredictably across the galaxy," supplied Perceptor.

"I know that your first concern is for the other Autobots who were on that mission with you," continued Optimus. He looked at Spike, standing on his desk next to him. "Of the seven that went, only Spike and Huffer made it to Cybertron. However they were sent to coordinates other than the original ones."

"But we were still able to find a supply of Cybertonium and bring it back!" boasted Spike proudly.

"Brawn was recovered from Earth's moon," Optimus continued. "We have not been able to make contact Jazz or Skids..." The concern in Optimus' voice was obvious. A rumble from the gathered mechs echoed Prime's worry.

Prime straightened. "I'll keep this short and end here, since a number of us wish to include personal messages, but again, we are cheered to hear from you. And it sounds like you have a solid plan to return to us. We shall await any further messages from you, and await your return. Optimus Prime out."

The message ended with a salute from Optimus and waves from the rest. And then a large number of file headers popped up—private text and video messages from various friends. Bumblebee and Carly went through them together, enjoying the words of greeting and comfort from their family. And when it came to Spike's message for Carly, Bumblebee asked if she wanted to watch it alone, but she smiled and told him to open it.

The message wasn't much more than Spike gushing about how much he missed her and hoping that she and Bumblebee would earn enough money to return soon. And then he gave a report of the mission to Cybertron and how he and Huffer had actually become fairly good friends, the two of them being left alone with a mission to accomplish. "I'll have to keep working on it though so he doesn't forget that I'm okay for a human being." And then he got a little sad and stifled a sniffle. "I guess that's all I have to say so I'll go now, but work hard and get back here as soon as you can. I miss you and I love you," he concluded and blew a kiss to the camera before switching off the recording function.

"That was sweet," she said, her own eyes growing a little moist. Bumblebee hugged her comfortingly. The message from him to Bumblebee had been about the same, only without any romantic overtones, and the kiss at the end was skipped.

-o-o-o-o-o-

When Carly slipped into recharge, Bumblebee opened the file from Smokescreen to him. When he'd seen the size of it, he'd suspected that it might contain some rather inappropriate material. And that was immediately confirmed when the video began to play.

Smokescreen was there, twirling the jack end of an interface cable between his fingers almost absent-mindedly. "Hello, bright one," smiled the red and blue mech. "I about dropped my transmission when word came that there was a message from you and Carly. Optimus was pretty brief with the general message from us, but quite a few of us have been really worried about you. And so now we're just down to just Jazz and Skids, and honestly most of us aren't too worried, given where the rest of you ended up, so we're sure they'll be just fine. Well... honestly... no one here is losing any recharge over it. Jazz is either tougher or smarter than most stuff out there and can handle himself. And Skids? Well...no one really seems to know him besides Optimus and Jazz and Prowl. If he makes it back, I'm not sure anyone would even notice that he was gone in the first place.

Smokescreen leaned in a little closer to the camera at this point. "On the other hand, Spike's been so anxious about you and Carly, and no offense, but annoyingly so at times. When your message came in he finally calmed down and quit pestering Cosmos and Jetfire to go out and look for you two. I don't think he really comprehends how big space is. So anyway, you're found and safe and well, so I made you a little something to show you how much I missed you," he gave his devious smirk to the camera, "and to show you what I wish I could be doing with you right now." He then dangled the cable's end in front of the camera. "I'll bet you've been missing this too," he said slyly. "As far as I know you can't plug in to Carly."

There was a giggle from off screen at the comment, which made Smokescreen look away for a moment, smirk again, and then reach for the camera. "So here's a little present for you...and for me too."

He swung the camera's lens around, revealing now that he was in his own quarters, identified by the collection of various hard currencies that had been glued to the wall above the berth's alcove. The lens refocused on the bed, where a sight both tantalizing and humorous awaited. There, sprawled out seductively on his side was Cliffjumper. Only he'd been painted yellow and marked with an exaggeratedly large Volkswagen logo on his chest panel that hid his Autobot symbol. Cliffjumper waved at the camera, a goofy grin on his face, which made Bumblebee grin back.

This was going to be most entertaining.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"**Stung" continues in Chapter 8: "The Grand Canyon" **

-o-o-o-o-o-

Please send a little feedback my way if you're enjoying the story. Commentary is appreciated! Very much so.

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Author Notes**

**Vaallo's Accent** – will be explained later in the story. Patience, dear readers.

**High-end Optics** – Some of the Autobots would have them due to their functions, or perhaps their fortunes. Quite possibly they'd not be mounted in the head with the usual optics. I could imagine Cosmos having them somewhere on his frame while the ones on his face would be fairly standard.

**The Storm** – If you've ever weathered a desert thunderstorm, you know how powerful and overwhelming they can be.

**Cliffjumper's Cosplay** – I've decided to give Smokescreen a bit of a thing for 'robots in disguise.'

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


	8. The Grand Canyon

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 8: The Grand Canyon**

-o-o-o-o-o-

"You awake?"

"Yeah. The neighbors."

The pair next door were at it again, their moaning and giggling and impassioned words coming through the wall.

"Remind me of why I've not gone out yet to see if earplugs are available on this planet," Carly moped. "Maybe we should stuff your armor with towels and make a wall of it to cut some of the noise." For the past two weeks Bumblebee had gone about mostly 'undressed,' having carefully detached most of his yellow shell plating and stacked it up against the wall. She suspected that Vashi had something to do with it, but he'd not bothered to put it back on even though the temptress had abandoned him for the new mech that had been hired. Besides, it wasn't necessary for work and he was much more agile in this environment without it. The only time he needed it was if he were going out in car-mode. His four rubber tires were stacked in a corner to confirm his unnecessary mobility.

"I was already used to it," Bumblebee confessed, "and really it doesn't bother me."

"Already used to it? Oh come on, 'Bee. Spike and I weren't that bad, and we usually waited until you were on duty."

"Usually," he teased.

"And we weren't even close to that noisy."

"Usually," he teased again.

"Oh stop it," she laughed and tickled him, fumbling for inner seams and cables in the near-darkness, knowing that to be where he was the most sensitive to pressure and electrical fields. "I heard you and Vashi a few times. Okay, I had to press my ear to her door. But I could hear you."

"Shame on you!" he laughed "And we were quiet."

"Most of the time."

Bumblebee squirmed and tried to dodge her, eventually rolling away and off of the mattress, but her hands pursued. He tried to grab her wrists, but trying to be careful slowed him too much, and she easily avoided his grasp. "No fair! You know you have the advantage in a tickle fight." It wasn't long before she had him backed up against their bedroom wall and he was trapped.

"You're cornered now," she threatened jovially.

He turned his head away and raised his arms above his head, crossing his wrists as if handcuffed or bound. "I'm at your mercy. Do your worst," he moaned melodramatically.

She chuckled wickedly and raised her hands to assault him again, but then changed her mind and flopped against him in a big hug. "Oh well~" She pressed her cheek against the Volkswagen's warm underplating affectionately.

"Hey, I think the neighbors have stopped."

They listened, and things had definitely grown cooler next door.

Carly pushed her body off of Bumblebee's frame and brushed the hair out of her eyes. "I guess we were noisier than they were. Of course I'm wide awake now." She went to the bottle of wine Vaallo had given her and poured herself a small glass.

"Well that was fun," he said straightening out their much disheveled bed. "Since we have tomorrow off...both shifts, what would you like to do? We have money in the bank so we can actually go shopping. Or we could go sightseeing."

"If we have the whole day off, we could do both. And maybe we should put together another message home to Earth." It had been two Horobian weeks since they'd sent the last, and four weeks since the first.

Bumblebee lay back down on the mattress and pulled the sheet over himself. Carly slowly sipped and finished her glass of wine, and lay back down beside him. When she reached for his arm, he flinched. "No...I'm not going to tickle you again," she said, realizing that what he was anticipating. "Silly robot."

Bumblebee, lying on his back, slid his arm toward her, where she took it and cradled it tenderly. And then she shifted so that she lay between his arm and his torso.

The sounds of carnal passion started up next door again.

"They must be trying to start a family, the way they go at it," Bumblebee decided aloud.

"Or they're just horny all the time."

"Or both. You organics just have this amazing desire to reproduce, or to at least go through the motions of it. It wasn't even this bad back at the last base on Cybertron when I roomed next to the twins."

After listening to the female keen her way through what had to be a momentous orgasm, Bumblebee shifted onto his side so that his chest plating pressed against her back. "Carly," he said softly. "I know that we've been here a while, and it seems like it's going to be a lot longer than we first expected. If...you need that too... I'd be happy to help."

Carly felt her insides twist nervously, while at the same time something else inside of her twisted in the opposite direction. Had Bumblebee really just propositioned her?

Suddenly she was acutely aware of the warm air drifting from his vents and the steady pulse of his spark, and of the tiny clicks and whirs and pings his body made. Had a robot really just propositioned her?

No. This was Bumblebee. It wasn't a proposition. It was a kind, thoughtful offer. He'd promised to take care of her, and this was a way he felt he could...could he?

Of course he could.

He'd been "taking care" of Vashi... at least until the new mech showed up. If he'd not been doing a good job it probably wouldn't have gone on most every night for the month of their affair. Back at Mt. St. Hilary he'd been Smokescreen's favorite berthtoy over the past few months, and according to Spike there had been others since their awakening on Earth. And there must have been other lovers in his past too, for he had to have learned somewhere. Despite his appearance and demeanor, he wasn't young or innocent by any means.

His hand curled over her belly and his head nodded slightly toward her. "I'm here if you want me," he whispered, a certain practiced tone of vulnerability in his voice, neither pleading nor desperate. How could anyone distrust that?

Carly sighed and lay her hand atop his, and he sighed back. And while she remained completely still, her mind was a capricious whirl of thought. Did she want him...in that way?

The answer from her body was a resounding yes. She did need what he was offering, and enough now not to care too much about how it was packaged. She'd even been wondering earlier how she might find a moment to slip away and take care of herself.

There was certainly no concern of pregnancy, nor a worry of catching anything from Bumblebee. Ratchet had said once that a Cybertronian was an inhospitable environment for the viruses and bacteria common to organic creatures. With all the oils, the fluids, the electricity, the high temperatures, the metals, the synthetics, and the chemicals, nothing organic lived long on or inside of them.

But the biggest concern came to the surface and bubbled out of the syrup of desire in a question. "What about Spike?" How would he feel about it, to find that his best friend had ended up sexually intimate with his girlfriend? They were both close to him, but this was the sort of thing that could drive an immovable wedge into a friendship.

Carly felt him smile against her hair. "Spike and I talked a lot about relationships, especially after Powerglide started seeing a human woman. I don't think he'll mind."

"You don't?" She could feel him pulling her ever so slightly closer.

"He'll understand... if you need it."

The man's moaning from next door was building to the point where their whispers were being drowned out.

"Think about it, Carly. Again, I'm here if you want me." He pulled her against his chest now and caught the edge of her ear between his lips. His glossa gave a single stroke up the captured edge. And then he pressed a delicate, dry kiss to the edge of her earlobe, his tongue wiggling her little gold hoop earring.

Releasing her ear, Bumblebee settled again with his hand resting on her hip with the fingers loosely curled, his vented breath wafting gently from a thoracic vent against her back.

Carly tried to reel in her thoughts. Damn he was tempting, and where had it come from? She'd never seen this side of his personality before. She lay still, feeling completely perplexed by the choice in front of her, and completely aroused by both the sounds from next door and Bumblebee's masterful touch. If anyone ever imagined the sunny little Autobot was inexperienced and naïve, they obviously had never looked below the surface of his personality.

-o-o-o-o-o-

They went out just before the new day began, wanting to make the best of the time. Bumblebee had come up with a plan.

First they went shopping to purchase food, energon, and a few supplies. And on going past a clothing shop, the shopkeeper just opening for the day, Carly paused to look at the Horobian party gowns displayed in the window, practically melting at one matched set in three gradated shades of teal. "Those colors would be really pretty on me," she oohed and ahhed. An hour later they were walking out of the shop with it, along with a slip-dress, a pair of matching sandals, a set of jewelry, and a headdress. Bumblebee had insisted that she have a complete outfit, should they be invited to a party somewhere again. She'd protested at first, knowing the expense, but after seeing herself in the three-way mirror, attired in the matchless ensemble, she'd surrendered to vanity. The shopkeeper even tossed in a little lagniappe for her—three compacts of cosmetic powder, one orange, one creamy white, and one teal.

Bumblebee, back in his plates and tires for the day, transformed and they headed out into the desert. This road was in much better shape than the road they'd first come to Hax Horobis on and Bumblebee could put on some speed. It was actually paved, and even had some residents and services out along it. "Where are we going?" Carly asked.

"The Grand Canyon," the Volkswagen replied.

"What? In Arizona?"

"Here on Horobis. It's a huge canyon to the north of Hax Horobis and they actually call it the Grand Canyon."

She laughed. "Seriously?"

"You've seen those canyon pictures up in the spaceport and in the travel agencies. It's quite a tourist attraction here. I thought we'd go out and see it, stay for the sunset, and then head home and sleep. We'll be back with plenty of time to rest for first shift."

"That sounds like a good plan. How far away is it?"

"About two Earth hours, if we can maintain this speed."

And maintain it they did, coming in time to the great gash through the plateau, where an ancient river had carved its way though aeons of rock layers, partially aided by a geological fault and certainly aided by the torrential scouring of the heavy rains that eroded the deserts around Hax Horobis. "It does look like the Grand Canyon," Carly said, completely impressed by the view.

"It's really something, isn't it?" Bumblebee agreed, equally struck by the depth and the sheer vastness of it.

And they weren't the only ones there to enjoy the sight. Plenty of other tourists stood on the platforms clinging to the canyon rim, marveling and recording images and purchasing souvenirs from the locals. Given the mix of sizes, colors, and races, they'd come from all over the galaxy to see the natural wonder.

"Only thing missing is the donkey ride to the bottom of it," Carly remarked, looking over the pictorial books one sales stand offered. "You can do that at the Grand Canyon, if you don't want to hike down." She picked up a book that appeared to be mostly photographs and thumbed through it.

"Actually, there's a road to the bottom here. We could drive down to the river."

"Really?" She looked excitedly up at Bumblebee. "I'd love to do that. Would there be time?" She reached into her bag and gave the vendor a five-jil coin for the book of pictures. It would be yet another interesting souvenir of her trip to Horobis to share once she returned.

"There should be. It's a toll road—costs 15 jil—but is probably worth the fee."

"Bumblebee! Let's do it! We can't drive to the bottom of the Grand Canyon at home, but we can here!" she said excitedly.

"All right then," he smiled. "I'll look at the map and see where to go."

-o-o-o-o-o-

The narrow two-lane road wound terrifyingly down into the canyon, in places narrowing down further to just one lane. At least it was paved and in good shape. Carly found herself holding her breath in some stretches, places where on one side of the road, a cliff rose straight up a hundred feet...or more, and on the opposite side it fell straight down twice that...or more. Thankfully there were guardrails through the worst stretches, and where a rare bit of flat land could be found atop some of the harder layers of rock, there were places one could pull over and gaze at the incredible panoramas.

They finally reached the bottom as the second quarter of the day began. Stopping and transforming, Bumblebee breathed a long sigh of relief—it had been a difficult drive. There were more hotels and tourist facilities at the bottom, but they decided simply to walk the trail that led along the river. On coming to a sandy beach-like area, where several other tourists were swimming or just wading in the shallows, Carly decided this was a good idea. After all, it was nearly the hottest part of the day, and the heat had continued to rise the deeper they had descended into the canyon. She wished she had a swimsuit, but wading would be pleasant enough. She took off her sandals and headed into the river.

Bumblebee followed, enjoying the cool of the water on his feet and tires as well. He moved out to where river was deeper and swifter, but paid attention to where his seats were, not wanting to get them wet. Something he'd never had to worry about on Cybertron.

And after cooling themselves, they drove the upstream road to a picturesque slot canyon and walked the winding trail up it, upon which the sun rarely shone. Further up the canyon road was a shrine above a sacred spring, apparently inhabited by some fertility goddess, to whom Taliseet women came to pray for children. For a fee, a priest would lead hopeful couples to the source and splash them with the water that had just bubbled up from the ground. "Our neighbors should come here," Carly giggled quietly after Bumblebee translated the sign for her. The final stop on the upper canyon road was at an arch on the canyon wall, where everyone stood beneath it to have their picture taken.

After the arch, they pulled off of the road and had a meal in a whispering grove of trees. And after eating they tucked down for a nap, Carly curling into Bumblebee's arm. The grove was out of sight of the road and so they could enjoy a little peace and solitude. According to the guidebook, there were no longer any Bashaduu in the area, the large predatory insect-like creatures that roamed most of Horobis, one of which they had encountered on their first day here.

On waking, they followed the lower canyon road. The sights to be seen along it included several waterfalls that issued from side canyons, a turbulent set of rapids on the main river—the antithesis of the gentle shallows they had waded in earlier, and an amazing viewpoint found at the top of a set of stairs hewn from the living rock. For these, Bumblebee put Carly atop his shoulders and climbed, taking them up quickly. While the views from the road had been spectacular , this viewpoint looked down an unusually straight section of the canyon into the distance, and for the umpteenth time that day the two gazed in silent wonder at the beauty of the Grand Canyon. Carly leaned fondly against Bumblebee's helm, glad to be sharing this with him.

Their wordless reverie was broken by a noisy tour group coming up the stairs and so they retreated. "I'm glad I bought that book . It has pictures of all these things we're seeing. I never want to forget this place," she sighed.

"Are they good pictures? I'm not sure how well my video captures here will turn out. I'm programmed to photograph Decepticons...not landscapes."

"I'm sure you'll get some good ones. Your other photos turned out. Though the pictures in the book are exceptionally beautiful—taken by professionals, I'm sure. So you get the right light and the most dramatic views. There are some amazing sunset pictures too."

"I hope the sunset tonight is a good one. I'd hate to be disappointed."

"Well, if it is, we'll just have to come back again before we leave Horobis," she said determinedly.

"That sounds like a plan," he grinned.

Back on the road, there was one more stop along the lower canyon, this one another shrine atop another sacred spring. Here Bumblebee bought a small bottle of water from a priest for two jil, just like all the other tourists were doing. The sign here promised that anyone who sprinkled the sacred water on his or her head before a business venture would be granted success. "I finally have the perfect thing to take home to Smokescreen," Bumblebee laughed on explaining it to Carly. "He'll love it!" 

"You don't really believe it will work, do you?"

"Of course not! But it can't be any more of a trick than his deals are sometimes."

-o-o-o-o-o-

The pair lay upon the blanket atop the canyon's rim, having finished another meal. Horobis had particularly marvelous sunrises and sunsets owing to the combination of long days and a meteorologically active atmosphere. The sun took longer to rise or set, and so the brilliant colors remained longer. And it was those brilliant colors they were staring up at now. Flaming apricot clouds stood in stunning contrast to the blue-green atmosphere. The highest billows were still an aureous white, while the lowest were a greyish-rust hue.

"I just realized something, 'Bee," Carly said suddenly. "My new dress...it's the color of the sky on Horobis."

"It is!" he agreed. "No wonder the lady gave you that orange blush to go with the bluish one. You're like the sunset."

"I'll need to get some of those white paper circles like Vashi glues to her face to represent the moons," she said, pointing toward the east where the smaller of Horobis's two bright white satellites was playing peek-a-boo among the clouds. And then she crawled up onto him and propped herself upon his chest, looking down at his faceplate. Her fingers strayed up to trace the bends in it. "Though the dress Vashi loaned me was a pretty color...a nice optic blue," she said, her fingers approaching the edges of his eyes.

"I'd like to see you in yellow, myself."

"Blondes look terrible in yellow," she answered. And then she wondered if that opinion had been an innuendo, or if he'd just picked up a bit of vanity from Tracks regarding one's personal color. The two were often paired together on patrols. But she decided to toy with his answer. "Well, how about this? Pink slip. Yellow shoes. Yellow and black gowns. Black gloves. Yellow headdress. I'd look like you."

"And your facepaint?"

"Blue over the eyes. Silver under them."

"You _would_ look like me...or Sunstreaker, except for the pink. His interior is solid black."

Carly rolled onto her back and looked up again at the sunset. The bat-like creatures that lived in the desert, stirred by the hush of the evening, were beginning to venture forth to hunt, their thin leathery forms passing overhead.

The human and the Cybertronian continued to watch the sky as the light slowly faded, both coming up with combinations of Horobian dress to recreate the various color patterns of the Autobots they knew. Perhaps Vashi would let her play in her closet some afternoon.

"Sunsets on Cybertron were nothing like this," Bumblebee said softly. Our star fell below the horizon and that was it. Nothing like the ones on Earth. Nothing like here. When we first awakened on Earth, for the first deca-cycle or so there would always be this exodus from the Ark at dawn and dusk, all of us wanting to see the sun come or go."

"Were you still going out to see it?"

"I would if I wasn't busy."

"And you still think it's beautiful?"

"Of course I do," he chuckled. And then he sat up slowly, Carly sliding down into his lap. His hands reached out and lifted her into a standing position, and then he simply gazed at her in the last of the day's light. "There are a lot of beautiful things on your planet," he said tenderly.

Carly couldn't help but blush. There was that same tone of voice again, that vulnerable one he'd used the day before.

"There was some resistance when we first set the Ark on a course for your solar system, but now most of us are glad in that decision. I'd never have met you...and Spike, if we'd gone somewhere else."

"And I'd never have met you," she replied, stepping closer to him. She'd gotten fairly good at reading the emotions of the mechs, some of them being easier to interpret than others. Those that associated more with the humans, and those that appreciated human culture to a greater degree, were the easiest to read. And right now, Bumblebee's expectant expression and twitching hands were pretty much begging her to hold him. Or perhaps she was projecting her own difficult urges onto him.

He smiled as she reached up and put her arms over his clavicular plates. "I'm glad you're here with me...here on Horobis," she whispered into the auricular vent on his neck.

"The feeling's mutual," he sighed back, his arms enclosing her. One hand slid up to her upper back and one curled about her hips. "Carly..."

"'Bee?"

"Right now I just want to hold you and never let you go. I hope you can forgive me for feeling so close to you."

"Oh, 'Bee..." She closed her eyes and pressed her cheek against his, her nose falling into the concave divide between his faceplate and helm, her arms curling about his neck. "I feel close to you too." It was all she could say, some rather awkward emotions bubbling up inside her at that moment. Close was a good word...a gateway word that could imply whatever this situation needed.

"If you weren't here with me on Horobis, I'd feel so alone," he said breathlessly.

And right now all those emotions were telling her to do was to kiss him...to forget her mores and her boyfriend and their mismatched races and just press her lips to his and go for it. But she still held back, as did he, neither coming up with the courage to express what they were feeling.

The bats now flew thickly about, snapping insects from the air and chirping where they rested in the trees. The lights at the visitors' village had come on some time ago, but now there seemed to be something happening there. They could hear music and a voice over a loudspeaker.

Carly and Bumblebee pulled apart slightly and looked to where the rest of the world was going on without them. "Shall we go look?" Carly asked, somewhat reluctantly breaking apart from him.

"Yes...let's" he said, seeming equally reluctant to break away from her. The pulse of his spark had just synchronized with her heartbeat as it usually did when they were physically close and concentrating on each other. Last night, when they'd gone back to bed after the interruption and the tickle fight, it had synchronized fully and remained so through the whole recharge period. This was a normal thing for two mechs, but it was as if his spark didn't know what she was, and probably it didn't care anyway. It just wanted to sing the same song.

Was this what Powerglide felt for Astoria?

Bumblebee shook out the blanket, folded it, and tucked it into subspace, retrieving Carly's jacket at the same time, for which she was appreciative.

They went over to the visitor area and at the center of the plaza, a group of Taliseet were assembling. Their clothes were as colorful as their skin, though their dress looked nothing like what the Taliseet in Hax Horobis wore. And when music came over the loudspeakers, they paired up and began to dance in a large circle. "Folk dancing!" exclaimed Carly. "You go halfway across the galaxy and they still have folk-dancing!"

They stood watching the dancers, Carly leaning back into Bumblebee's waist and arms, where he held her protectively. When two pretty little Taliseet children, dressed as their parents in colorful costumes, came about to ask for tips Carly dropped a few coins into their basket. "How could anyone resist those big dark eyes?" she sighed. And then she had Bumblebee take her picture with the sweet little things, for which she gave them some more money.

When the folk-dancing demonstration finished, Bumblebee transformed and they got back onto the road, Carly snuggling as tightly as she could against Bumblebee's seat. She never wanted to leave him now. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with the Autobots. And was it really that horrible to have been stranded so far from home with him? So many times before she'd imagined Spike there, riding along in the cab with her. But now, and with some guilt, she did not conjure him. Instead it was just her and Bumblebee.

She fell asleep against the seat, lost in the hum of his engine and the vibration of the road and the feelings that had risen in her heart.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"**Stung" continues in Chapter 9: "I Will. I Want To" **The chapter BB/Carly fans have been desperately awaiting!

-o-o-o-o-o-

Please send a little message my way if you're enjoying the story. Commentary is definitely appreciated! I would be nice to hear the thoughts of my readers.

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Author Notes**

**The Grand Canyon** – Those of you who have been to the bottom of the Grand Canyon in Arizona know this. The temperature rises the deeper into it you are. It can be snowing at the rim and pleasantly warm at the bottom at the same time.

**The Shrines** – These are based upon experiences of my travels in Japan, where different springs and shrines are noted for certain mystical powers.

**Folk Dancing** – " Yes, no matter what the culture, folk dancing is stupid." – MST3K on "Progress Island USA"

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


	9. I will - I want to

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 9: "I will. I Want To"**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Be my love  
'Cause I'm a single flower, feeling free  
Blooming now  
Take me, honey. Be my favorite bee **

**-Lyrics from "Bumble Bees" by Aqua**

-o-o-o-o-o-

Jazz followed the readings with growing anxiety. If his guesses were correct, his marooned state might be about to change.

And from atop the next ridge his guesses were confirmed. There in the low valley was what could be nothing but a crashed spaceship. A rusted hull lay in two pieces, the forward segment in much better shape than the rear one.

"Good! Very good," he told his hunting companions, a group of warriors that had chosen to follow him that day.

But the Cold River people did not agree. "Very bad! Very bad! Evil!" they insisted, pointing at the silvery hulk protruding above the forest canopy. It had been there a long time, for the jungle was well on its way to reclaiming it.

"For Jazz Four, good," the Autobot stated and began to scan the area for the easiest way to reach it.

Red Spring climbed up him and tapped him on the helm. "No! Bad! For Jazz Four, bad," the man insisted.

Obviously the Cold River people had some taboo about this area. What had happened to them when the ship had crashed who knew how long ago? Jazz plucked the ape-like warrior from his shoulder and held him in one hand, using the other to stroke the man's thick mane of hair. "Jazz Four go. Sorry."

"No! Jazz Four no go. White fire evil."

The mech cocked his head. Now they were getting somewhere. "White fire?"

"White fire. Evil. Burn forest. Burn land. Burn people."

Apparently the crash had ignited a chemical propulsion booster and had taken out a lot of the landscape.

"Evil! Dead gods! All gods burned!" cried out Old Foot from below.

Jazz set down Red Spring next to Old Foot. "Dead gods?"

"Dead gods." And then he tapped emphatically on Jazz's chestplate. "Jazz Four alive. Jazz Four no go."

There had been no survivors of the crash. The Cold River people had seen their lifeless bodies.

He stood up again and looked to the downed ship. "Jazz Four go. Jazz Four find gods."

"All gods dead!" Old Foot cried defiantly.

But the living one was not to be dissuaded. The five warriors wailed and clung to him as he tried to leave. He began to descend the ridge to the valley below. When it became clear they wouldn't be able to stop their stubborn, heedless deity from venturing to the source of evil, they leapt from his frame and stood on the slope, holding each other and weeping aloud, their hands clawing at the painted numerals on their chests.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Back at the Garden Paradise Hotel, Bumblebee and Carly headed for the baths. And after showering they both climbed into the hotter tub and sat relaxing. Someone had filled the steeping basket with what appeared to be some variety of citrus fruits, and the tub's water smelled of something akin to tangerines or mandarin oranges. Bumblebee opened the basket and began examining the contents, bringing each fruit out for a closer look, giving each a careful squeeze against his left index finger, and then placing his finger against his tongue to taste them. On a few, he'd break off a section of the peel and place it into his mouth to be shunted into his stomach for further tasting and chemical examination.

Carly watched him amusedly for a while. It was always interesting to watch the mechs studying things. Hound and Beachcomber had probably been the most curious about what her planet presented, followed closely by Perceptor. Though their focus was different. The first two wanted to enjoy and appreciate. The latter wanted to learn how whatever it was worked and how he might use it.

"Bumblebee..."

He looked up from the basket of fruit.

"Last night, you offered me something..."

"Oh?" His eyes flickered for a moment on remembering to what offer she referred. "Oh … Yes... I did. But you don't have to accept. It was just an offer."

"'Bee... I will. I want to," Carly said, drifting into his lap, her shoulders just above the water's surface, bringing her face close to his.

His optics flickered again. "You've given it enough thought?"

"I have, and I'm ready." Her arms reached up and draped over his shoulders. "I think so, and if I think about it any longer I'm going to die of deliberation."

He closed up the floating basket of fruit and encircled her waist with his hands. "All right," he said with a twinge of a smile. And then he leaned forward and kissed her... on the lips. "I'm here for you."

They'd kissed each other plenty of times but their lips had never actually met. This was a first—the sharing of a kiss. And it was just as she'd imagined it.

The Autobots had not been strangers to the act when they'd come to Earth—other races around the galaxy practiced kissing and it had half-heartedly spread to Cybertron. But its prevalence in human culture had made it much more common amongst the Autobots now. After all, they were subjected to it any time they turned on a television. She'd been astounded on an early visit to the Ark to find a dozen or so of them clustered around one of Teletraan's screens watching a soap opera. "This is great," Spike had said mischievously at the time. "They eat this stupid stuff up!" And so for half an hour they watched the Autobots watching 'As the Kitchen Sinks,' quietly giggling at seeing the massive mechanoid warriors caught up in the maudlin drama. The robots gasped. They sobbed. They became indignant. They cooed.

When one scene ended with a rather passionate locking of lips between two of the characters and the station went to a commercial break, Inferno suddenly took Red Alert in his arms and the two of them re-enacted the romantic moment. Some of the others nearby helped out. "No. Gordon had his hand here," corrected Jazz and physically moved Inferno's hand to a new position.

"Red, you have to kiss harder than that. Like you mean it!" Hound insisted. "Like this." Hound placed himself into the taller Trailbreaker's arms and demonstrated.

It had all been rather strange and surreal, and a little unnerving when the show ended and the watchers drifted back to their work stations, only to open up a view of Ratchet and Tracks pressed against the console, apparently still practicing Gordon and Donna's technique, the two mechs completely unashamed of their P.D.A..

And now here she was making out with Bumblebee, her arms around his neck, sitting in his lap, hot water lapping all around them. It was actually pretty pleasureable if she ignored the slight metallic taste on her lips and the fact that there was no give to his plating.

"We should go back to the room," he said breathlessly at a pausing point.

She agreed, and they left the tub and dried off, Carly putting on her robe but not her pajamas. If they were actually going to go all the way, pajamas were pointless now. And back in the room, Carly poured herself a glass of wine, the last one in the bottle. She'd tried to make the bottle last, and had stretched it over a full Horobian week after finally breaking down and opening it.

Bumblebee went to the desk and pulled his tool set out of it. As she dried her hair and sipped her precious final glass of wine, he detached several of his outer plates once more, taking them off carefully and lining them up along the wall again, leaving him looking rather slimmed down and rather dark once more. "I didn't realize you were going to get undressed too," she commented half-teasingly.

He gave her a sweet smile. "Vashi said she preferred it without all the shell pieces. I thought you might too...unless you prefer car-mode."

She couldn't help but snort a little laugh at the car-mode comment, and it did make her feel a little more at ease. She had been feeling somewhat nervous about it despite her resolve. At the same time she was dying to know what it would be like, and aching for some release as well. But she'd just had a wonderful day, a nice shower and soak, and a glass of wine. How much more relaxed could she be?

"Besides, the underplating's far more sensitive than the outer parts," he continued with a mischievous little smirk.

Carly felt her face warm. Bumblebee had again caught her off-guard. She unwound the towel from her head, hung it up, and sat down on their mattress. Her first time with Spike had been horribly awkward and had barely happened. Memories of those difficult few hours suddenly came floating back. On the positive side, this certainly wasn't Bumblebee's first time, though it probably was his first time with a human being. He'd probably treat her like he had Vashi, since she was fairly close in size and build, and recently in his mind.

Bumblebee finished with the removal of his plating and moved to their bed. He reclined next to her, propping up his head on an elbow. "Anything I should know before we start?"

She was somewhat startled by the forwardness of the question, but managed an answer. "Nothing out of the obvious I suppose," she said. "And don't tickle me."

"I'll try not to," he replied remembering her attack on him the previous night. "But only if you promise not to tickle me." He reached for her and cupped her chin in his hand, then drew it close to kiss her again, his mouth gently squeezing her upper lip. And this time, as opposed to in the bath, there was something of an electric tingle to the press. And then he gently pushed her down to lie on her back, her head on the pillow. "Close your eyes," he instructed.

Carly did so, and then she felt his fingers skimming over her face, ever so gently touching her skin. Sometimes they'd brush back a damp lock of hair. Sometimes they'd trace the length of her nose or the edge of her chin. Sometimes they would stray to her ears or her neck. And gradually they made their way down her body, tenderly pushing back the edges of her robe to expose more skin as he came to it. When he reached the tops of her toes he just as gently he rolled her over onto her stomach and began to work back up in the same fashion.

Suddenly it hit her what he was doing. He was mapping her...carefully learning her shape and studying her frame. She'd seen some of the other Autobots do this with unfamiliar objects they wished to memorize. None of the objects had been human though.

And when his fingers returned to the top of her head, he rolled her back over and kissed her again. "You're lovely," he whispered. "Very lovely. I hope I don't disappoint."

She was glad that he caught her lips for another kiss...this one deeper than before...because she really wasn't sure how to respond.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"**Stung" continues in Chapter 10: "Aftermath" **Jazz's story continues, and Carly guiltily realizes she's fallen in love with Bumblebee. But are the feelings mutual? BB/Carly

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Author Notes**

**Chapter Title** – This comes from one of my favorite lines in the play "Bell, Book, and Candle," uttered by Gillian when she finally succumbs to Shep's pleading to marry her. I played Gillian last fall, and my beloved cat had the starring role of her familiar, Pyewacket.

**Citrus Fruits** – A few years ago I was two nights at a hotel in the Akihabara district in Tokyo. It had uncomfortably small rooms but did have a lovely public bath on the top story. I loved to soak up there at the end of the day, lost in my own thoughts. The indoor tub had this basket of mixed citrus fruit floating in it to scent the water...most pleasant, and a wonderful conversation piece.

**As the Kitchen Sinks** – It's canon. I'm not kidding.

**Car Mode** – I figure there are some mechs out there who love interfacing while in their alt-modes. Pervs...

**Xenophilia** – If you need a bit more, read my story "Wayward Kisses." I've been on a human/robot relationship kick lately.

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


	10. Aftermath

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 10: "Aftermath"**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Smell your skin  
Feel your breath  
You on my side  
I couldn't resist  
I hope I'll understand some day  
What's the meaning of this crazy game  
It is real and pure  
T.N.T. for the brain  
If there's no pain  
Rules are still the same  
I'm with you, just lead me  
I'm ready to play**

**Lyrics to "TNT for the Brain" by Enigma**

-o-o-o-o-o-

Jazz found his way to the crashed ship and discovered it to be larger than it had appeared from the ridge line, perhaps half the size of the Ark he estimated. The amount of the decay and the regrowth of the forest suggested that the craft had come down three or four vorns ago. His approach had taken him to the battered stern of the craft first, and it was clear that it had come in tail down. The resulting crash and breaking apart and following fire left little to look at. Radiation readings were much, much higher than those of the surrounding forest. A reactor breach was to blame for the plight of the ship. The subsequent 'white fire' only shortened the misery of the doomed crew.

Moving on to the forward segment, he could see that the fire had spread to it, but had not consumed nearly as much of the hull. It appeared that some of the internal seals had held. In a few places some of the craft's paint remained, and in one area he found writing he could not immediately identify. Running it through his information banks turned up a name for the language but a translation was not available.

And then he found the first of the dead gods the Cold River people had spoken of. Two humanoid bodies approximately his own size lay outside the ship in environmental suits. Where the fabric was torn he could see bones. Whether they had died of crash injuries or if the atmosphere had been poison to them, or if they had succumbed to the fire it was uncertain. The next three he found definitely had died from the latter option—their environmental suits were charred. Perhaps they'd died trying to rescue crew members from the aft of the ship.

He clambered inside the forward half of the hull, stepping over two more skeletons, and followed a long hallway up the tilted decks up to where he eventually found what must have been the bridge. The captain, judging from the position of the chair he sat in, was still at his post. Three more skeletons remained at their stations. A fourth sat curled up behind the captain's chair.

Jazz saluted the captain's skeleton reverently. "Sorry to bother you, Sir, but I need your radio. Or I'm going to end up like you...eventually."

-o-o-o-o-o-

Carly felt strange through most of her shift and she was very glad that dealing with towels and sheets required so little mental effort. Or as Wheeljack would say: "You only need your processor running at ten percent for this." Which was good, because the other ninety percent was running excitedly over the events of the past five quarters—shopping, the Grand Canyon, snuggling through the sunset, her feelings unfolding for Bumblebee, her body unfolding for him. How could so much have been packed into only two and half Earth days?

She now understood why Smokescreen had fallen for the minibot, even though most of the mechs preferred a lover of their own size. And why she and Spike had sometimes woken to find an overcharged and eager Cliffjumper or an undercharged and moping Beachcomber lying in Bumblebee's berth waiting for him to return from a duty shift or a mission. Bumblebee had worked not just to please her. He'd loved her. He'd pushed the envelope of caretaking beyond what was expected or required. For the better part of those two and a half days he'd done nothing but devote himself to her desires and needs. And in the final stretch, that devotion had swelled to an overwhelming intensity to include her sexual desires and needs as well as her emotional ones.

He'd been wonderful. He'd been marvelous. He was so different from Spike in the way he physically showed love, and it had been amazing.

And now she couldn't get Bumblebee out of her mind. She was eager for the end of the shift so that she could run into his arms and kiss him again and hold him through the night. Maybe they could go out to dinner. There was that romantic-looking place on Concourse 3, the tables draped with red cloth and lit by the glow of an oil lamp atop each. Or maybe they could go up to the overlook on the bluffs again and cuddle as they watched spaceships come and go. Maybe another nice long citrus-scented soak and back to bed... Maybe they could do all three. There was time in a quarter.

And suddenly the thought hit her...a thought as monstrous as it was beautiful.

She was in love with him. She had fallen in love with the yellow Autobot.

How could this be? How could she have let it happen? She'd spent the whole summer sharing a bed with Spike, only to have fallen suddenly for his best friend and roommate.

No.

No, it wasn't suddenly.

It was anything but suddenly.

It had started three years ago...the first moment she'd spotted him there at Robots Video Arcade.

She'd gone to Central City just after graduation, intent on seeing some of the giant alien robots that had made their base nearby. The government had at first tried to hide them, but their battles and they themselves had proven too big to be kept concealed. And on just her second day there she'd spotted him and his human companion at the video arcade.

That's when it had begun.

She'd slipped quietly behind the crowd watching the Autobot play the ironically named "Robot Resource," their eyes all glued to the console's screen and the rapidly rising score. But her eyes had been on him, watching his hands, admiring his articulation, craning for a glimpse of the cables and struts that occasionally peeked out from behind parted plates. Her ears listened frustratedly through the noise of the arcade for the click of servos and the hiss of hydraulics, and any other noise that might have given her a clue as to how he functioned. If she'd been asked then and there what she'd like to do, her answer would probably have involved taking him somewhere private and stripping off his plating piece by piece to see how he was put together underneath it.

On that first day of meeting the Autobots, she'd been far more interested in them than she was in their human friend. That moment when Ironhide had caught her sneaking around the woods and picked her up, she'd hardly heard a word he said she'd been so amazed at their kind. And here one had noticed her and was talking to her...even holding her in his huge hands. She barely knew where to focus...the weathered silver face...the shifting hands moving her about...the massive frame that she knew was not his only form. She could have happily spent hours just gazing upon him, studying him and watching him move. And not just that tall red one, but any of them.

But instead she ended up on a date with the teenage boy, who much like herself, felt more at ease around human and alien machinery than around his own kind. After that they were a couple and everyone liked them that way. She grew to love him, despite the age difference, and accepted him as more than just her ticket to remain with the Autobots.

She and Spike spent their days together, even going on some missions and eventually both being named honorary Autobots. The highlight had been when they traveled to Cybertron to procure a supply of a mysterious mineral named Cybertonium, the depletion of which was causing physical failure in both the Autobots and Decepticons. And the quest for the same mineral had landed her and Bumblebee on the planet Horobis.

Spike was young and inexperienced around the opposite sex, but that didn't diminish his enthusiasm to be with her. The Autobots themselves seemed suspiciously eager to see a human romantic relationship played out live for them. Sparkplug even seemed to want them together. That first summer had been a lot of fun, and she got to spend plenty of time studying the Autobots, as much as they spent time studying her. Ironhide and Ratchet had become her best friends there after Spike and Bumblebee. Hoist seemed to like her a lot as well, often taking her into town for grocery and shopping trips. It was all worth putting up with Spike's occasionally bumbling nature when it came to his actually being her boyfriend. At least he did learn quickly. And this past summer had been even better regarding their relationship. In late June, a couple weeks after she'd arrived after her post-graduate classes had concluded for the semester, they'd decided to share a bed. "My eighteenth birthday present!" he'd decided.

But now...

Without Spike, her attentions had turned again to the small mech as if somehow her original plan had only been diverted temporarily by that first date, and Bumblebee's drive to look after her had captured those attentions inescapably. Had she not felt—and suppressed—some jealousy on finding he'd become Vashi's lover? And had there not been a feeling of relief, albeit a guilty one, when the lizardess had dumped him? Last night's events were the consummation of what they'd been inevitably drifting toward. There was no longer a barrier between them. Their exile on this world had forced them together and broken all the restraints.

On one hand she felt awful about it. A hundred thousand years of human evolution and breeding and she'd turned out to want a non-human life form. There had always been a sniggered undercurrent in her cybernetics classes about 'robosexuals,' and a few of her classmates teasingly admitted to being such. But she'd never considered herself attracted in that way. But now...now that she'd lived with them, and as of last night been so very intimate with one, it all seemed perfectly normal. It had been normal for Vashi, had it not? And from everything she'd picked up here on Horobis, such relationships were normal and common enough.

And how wonderful that sort of normal had felt!

She'd not just had sex with him. He'd made love to her. There was kissing and touching and tenderness and passion. He'd not been in any hurry to service her and then slip into recharge. Instead he'd taken his time getting there, and once he'd gotten her there, he took her back twice more through the night. And through it he'd constantly whispered sweet, positive things about her, about how kind she was, how smart she was, how soft her skin felt, how he loved the sound of her voice. Even trivial things were important to him—how perfect the undulating curves of her external ears were, how soothing it was to hear her heartbeat slow down after an orgasm, how the tips of her fingernails looked like a spread of crescent moons.

At one point when they were connected, he opened up his sub-plating, slid aside more internals, and placed her hands upon his spark chamber. It felt hot but not hot enough to burn her skin. She'd been astounded that he was willing to share it with her, to let her get so close to his very core. And with her hands embracing his soul he gushed about how beautiful she looked bathed in the light coming through its window.

And then he'd leaned forward to kiss her again, pulling her bare body against the chamber. She could feel her hair stand on end as the static charge rose and suddenly he was trembling. "Bumblebee..." she'd sighed against his lips as her fingers slid daringly into the bundles of wires that connected the spark chamber to the rest of his body. And with that he'd overloaded, the light of his spark flaring out in a blinding green pulse while his optics faded to black.

It had been quite a moment.

And now came another sudden thought, even more horrific than the first realization.

He probably didn't feel the same.

Her throat tightened and she hoped that her own logic would override the urge to cry. She'd known what he was like...what most of the Autobots were like. Apparently a few had deeper irrefrangible relationships, but most lived their love lives day to day in this time of war. The common thought was that it was better to mourn for a mere vorn over the loss of a loved one than to mourn the rest of one's life at the loss of a sparkmate. Of course Bumblebee wouldn't feel the same. The past two and a half days had just been business as usual, another dalliance to connect with the ones he cared about. When they finally made it back to Earth, he'd return right back to Smokescreen and the others, probably inviting her to join him on occasions when Spike was away. And if it ever got out that she'd been intimate with Bumblebee, perhaps some of the others might make themselves available to her, presumably out of curiosity or their own feelings for her. Ironhide and Hoist would probably be the first.

No, Bumblebee couldn't be in love. His style was all polyamory. While he might have a particular favorite at a given time, he never closed himself off from any of the others if they were like-minded. And yes, while perhaps he was thrilled to include her in his affections, his feelings for her couldn't be any greater than those held for another.

Carly suddenly realized that she was crying, her tears falling into the stack of hand towels she was currently folding. The blue-scaled Horobian woman who ran the dryers came over and put her arm around Carly, sympathetic to whatever the human woman was sobbing about. In a motherly fashion, she picked up one of the towels and blotted Carly's face, speaking soft words in Taliseet which of course Carly couldn't understand. The lizardess held her for a while, but when one of the huge dryers beeped, she gave the human a sympathetic smile and a comforting hug, and went back to it.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"Look, Carly, about yesterday..." Bumblebee said slowly, looking both worried and guilty. He'd led her out to the parking yard behind the hotel to talk. There were some benches out there, overlooking the ravine that ran through the neighborhood, where they now sat to talk alone. The view was interesting, but unspectacular after the scenery of the Grand Canyon. "I said some things I probably shouldn't have, and I did some things I probably shouldn't have either."

He rubbed at the back of his neck with a nervous hand, a gesture of discomfort he'd picked up from Spike. He couldn't even bear to look at her. "I was feeling rather amorous and I couldn't hold back. All the sweet things I said. I shouldn't have. It's just what I do and I know that Spike doesn't talk like that when you're together. And that thing with my spark chamber. I shouldn't have forced that on you. I was just rather overcome."

Carly sniffled and went for the washcloth she'd slipped into her pocket when he'd given her the "we need to talk" moment when their shift had ended.

"So I'm sorry if it all seemed really weird and that I was being too aggressive with you. I hope you can forgive me." He sighed himself and slumped even further forward, which was quite low without his yellow shell plating interfering with the flexibility of his protoform. "I've been feeling bad about it all day. What you were expecting. What I was expecting."

Carly braced herself even as she wrung the washcloth in her hands. "Look, 'Bee, I understand. I think I do at least. We're very different and maybe our expectations are different. I've been thinking about it all day too."

"Thank you, Carly. I just knew I had to tell you and hope you'd understand. We can't have any secrets between us. We have to stay together if we want to get home. And I'll try not to be so...enthusiastic...in future if you need me."

"Yes. We have to stick together." 

"Yes." His hand reached over and clasped hers. "I'll try to back off a little and let you have your space. I realize you expected this to be a casual thing, like me with Smokescreen and the others back at the base. And my emotions got out of hand and I carelessly let it go further when I shouldn't have."

"Yes..." Those had been her expectations.

And then she paused. Wait... What was he saying?

"'Bee?"

The yellow minibot suddenly shifted off of the bench and knelt before her, still holding her hand. There were tears rimming his optics. "Slaggit Carly...I can't help myself. I'm in love with you," he whimpered, blue eyes burning sorrowfully at his guilt. "Stupidly, madly in love with you."

Her stomach fluttered. That was not the confession she'd been expecting. In fact it was the exact opposite.

-o-o-o-o-o-

They sat across the table from each other, gazing admiringly at each other in the warm glow of the oil lamp at the center of the red tablecloth.

"So the thing with your spark...you don't usually do that with your partners?" she was asking.

"No," replied Bumblebee, shaking his head. "Like I said, I was feeling rather amorous. I wanted to connect completely," and that was the best I could do, at least without hurting you."

"Hurting me?"

"I'd probably burn you if I opened the chamber itself. Our sparks give off a lot of radiation in several different spectra."

"And...you would open it for another mech?"

"If I cared about him as much as I do you." He reached across the table and took her hand. "I've loved you a long time. I've just never been able to tell you before...because of Spike. And because I wasn't sure how you would take it. I didn't know if you'd be open to such."

The waitress brought their orders—Bumblebee a set of small energon spheres in various colors and Carly a salad topped with something that was probably best translated as 'chicken' even though they weren't exactly sure what sort of animal it was.

"So now what?" she asked, picking up the long two-pronged fork the Horobians preferred to eat with. "We're in love...and yet we both have someone back home waiting for us. I know you've been attached to Smokescreen all summer, and well... I have Spike..." She sighed and poked at her salad instead of eating it.

"We live for today," said Bumblebee with all confidence. "We live for today, enjoy what we have, and when we get home...well...maybe we'll just to return to what we left behind, or maybe not."

"So until then, a jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou," mused Carly.

"Especially thou..." grinned Bumblebee and he toasted her with the pinkest of the energon spheres.

They ate, and then took a long walk along one of the ravine trails, hand in hand, simply enjoying the new state of their relationship, feelings they'd once denied but could now allow to flourish.

Bumblebee's circuits swirled in a bliss of fulfillment. Carly...wonderful Carly...was finally his now. The trip to the Grand Canyon and the passionate night that followed had not been a mistake or a misjudgment or a misunderstanding or a mis-anything. Instead it had been the long delayed acceptance that they had feelings for each other. It had not been one-sided affection after all.

He'd liked humans since the beginning. Spike and his father had been some of the first he'd met. And then when Carly showed up, he'd discovered a growing attraction for human females. Of course many of the mechs who had been stationed on other planets always said 'three weeks there and the locals start to look good.' He'd considered this on meeting Vashi—though his attraction to her had been immediate. And he had yet to develop any interest in Racki.

But when it came to Carly, even after she'd done such foolish things and gotten involved in their war, and then embarked on a relationship with Spike, he still found her wonderful. Admittedly he'd been a touch disappointed that humans of their culture paired up monogamously, meaning that there was no hope of sharing her with Spike, which would have been a normal Cybertronian solution to the situation, but really it didn't matter. He was thrilled to share his time and laughter with her, if not his romantic feelings or his berth. That could be left to Spike. Besides, Bumblebee had his own lovers to keep him busy.

But now, here on Horobis, Carly was his...and as long as they weren't on shift, they were free to be together however they wished. Yes, he was taking care of her in Spike's stead, but he honestly hoped that when they eventually returned to Earth, that he wouldn't have to give that up. And whether or not he had to, he was going to make every moment of his time with her count.

And on returning to the employee quarters of the Garden Paradise Hotel, he stopped at their door, kissed her soundly, swept her off of her feet, and carried her into their room.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"**Stung" continues in Chapter 11: "The Return of the Captain" **Carly and Bumblebee go sightseeing again. A familiar face returns to Hax Horobis and gets Carly a new job, besides taking her and Bumblebee out on a special trip with some of his crew.

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Author Notes**

"**TNT for the Brain"** \- by Enigma seemed to match the sentiment of this chapter. You've probably never seen it, but the video for it is a sexy, gothic, gorgeous piece of surreal art that makes me want to write Jazz/Airachnid or Mirage/Airachnid crack fics. I'm not kidding. You can look it up on YouTube, and then you'll be like "oh yeah...Jazz and Airachnid would be really sexy and scary together."

**The Crashed Ship** – is highly inspired by Stewart Cowley's compilation of short stories in his book "Spacewreck." I'm tempted to write a full length story based upon Jazz's adventures, melded with Cowley's tale "Children of the Gods."

**Robots Video Arcade** – Canon again—this is exactly how Carly met the Autobots. This place is hilarious. The names of the games always crack me up... "Robot Resource"? Hmm... sounds really... interesting. And by interesting I mean dull. I might slip some of the games into one of my Wreck-It Ralph stories at some point.

**Ironhide and Hoist** – I totally ship these two with Carly. There was a moment of Carly/Hoist in my story "Wayward Kisses." I'll see what I can do with her and Ironhide.

**Chicken** – One of the universal standards for how things taste. LOL!

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


	11. The Captain Returns

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 11: "The Return of the Captain"**

-o-o-o-o-o-

It had taken some time and much effort, and repeated trips out to the broken ship, but at last he had it ready. From the wreckage of the unknown spacecraft he'd managed to salvage a repairable communications array, repair it, and power it with the solar collectors he'd found in a storage room. On top of that he'd been able to decipher the navigational reports and pin down a location for himself.

Said location was not encouraging.

Jazz removed his camera from its mount in his chest and set it up on his 'work table,' a flat spreading rock close to the village upon which the women of the Cold River people ground their grain into flour. And with Old Foot seated on one shoulder and Seven Birds upon the other, he began to record his message home.

"Greetings from Seti Four!" he began enthusiastically. "Autobot Jazz reporting in. I'm hoping this reaches you. I know I've been AWOL for a while, but I seem to have ended up... well... not where the space bridge was supposed to leave me and the rest of the team. You might want to give Shockwave a call and suggest he get that thing calibrated."

"I can only hope the rest of the team survived the malfunction. I've not been able to make radio contact with any of them, and I've only just been able to attempt to send a message home, having obtained some alien communications equipment. Salvaged it from a spaceship that seems to have crashed here about three or four vorns ago. You can contact me on my personal frequency at this location. And I know I'm a ways out, so I'm not expecting a rescue anytime soon. I'll wait. Though I think I've figured out this alien equipment enough that I can receive sound and data files on it."

He looked at the two men sitting on his shoulders, the two wondering to whom their god was talking. "I am in no danger here and am surviving on solar power and organic oils. The locals are friendly and have been helpful. And unlike the rest of you, they love my music." That last statement was just a lie to tease though. The Cold River people preferred the primitive whining their stringed instruments produced over the hard thumping rock he enjoyed. So he always saved his personal music for the trips out to the downed ship.

He sighed and leaned toward the camera, speaking with more seriousness. "I do hope the others that were sent on the mission are all safe and sound. Especially Carly and Spike as they're much more vulnerable than we are. I miss you all, and I hope this message reaches you. I'll also be sending out distress calls on the universal frequencies in hopes of someone else finding me. Jazz out."

He switched off the camera and packaged the video file to send. And then filtered out the audio portion to send alone. Both files went into the broadcast bin and he launched them into space along with a prayer to Primus.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Carly kissed Bumblebee's faceplate to wake him, and his lips curved into a smile before his optics flickered on.

"Wake up sleepy-bot," she giggled. "We're going to see the wreck of the Jancis Jo today," she smiled.

"Wouldn't you rather just stay here in bed all day?" he purred, pulling her back as she tried to get up. He kissed her between her bare shoulder-blades.

She laughed. "Didn't we spend enough time in bed last night?" She threw off the sheet, wriggled away, and started pulling out clothing to wear, settling on Spike's shirt and a pair of her own jeans. Bumblebee had admittedly found it humorous one morning to discover that she'd started wearing Spike's underwear and shirt. She later turned his jeans into cut-offs and wore them fairly often when not working. Spike had a few years before explained the difference between mens' clothing and womens' clothing to him and insisted that it was inappropriate for one gender to wear the clothing of the other, with only a few garments considered suitable for either. He'd asked Carly about it, and she told him that no one here knew the difference and that she did need things to wear. But besides a pair of sandals for work and the teal Horobian party ensemble, she'd not bought any local clothing. Perhaps he could talk Vashi into taking her shopping for at least a couple of outfits.

"Are you getting up today?" she asked, noting he'd not moved since she'd woken him. "Lazy robot."

"Lazy?" he chuckled. "I seem to remember someone last night begging me to let her sleep," he reminded her.

"I was tired," she defended. "You wore me out."

"Glad to be of service," he said with a nod of his head. Then he rose and folded up their bed, stowing it into the closet.

They showered, skipped a soak, gathered up some food, and headed out onto the road. But on reaching the crest of the bluffs to the east of Hax Horobis, Bumblebee suddenly spun 180 degrees on the road and pulled to the side. "What is it?" Carly asked at the sudden stop.

"There! Look!" Bumblebee flung open his door and nudged her out.

"What did you see? ...Oh!"

Bumblebee transformed and they stood and watched the huge caramel-colored ship descending to one of the outer landing pads. "I can't make out the lettering from here, but it's definitely of the same class..."

"Do you think it's the Third Horizon?"

"It could be. Captain Vaallo did say they stopped through here on most of his runs."

They watched as the huge wedge-shaped ship kissed the planet with unexpected grace. They were far enough away that they couldn't hear the massive engines as they cycled down.

"I hope it's him," said Carly. "He was really nice. I'd love to talk to him again."

"I hope so too. Maybe we'll get another party invitation."

"And if we do, I have my own dress to wear to it now."

They watched a little longer, and then resumed their expedition.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"Charli! Charli!" called Cheshi, the laundry supervisor. "Natch! Natch!"

"Ta, ta. Ya natchi!" Carly crawled out of the undercarriage of the stilled dryer where she'd been brushing and vacuuming away the lint. As the smallest member of the laundry crew, it was her job to keep the mechanics underneath and behind clean and oiled. Righting herself and straightening her uniform, she saw a Yiaan at the doorway.

Her heart skipped a beat. Was it...? "Captain Vaallo?"

"I was hoping I might find you here," he said with a nod.

She walked over and looked up at his eyes, Cheshi moving back toward the other laundry workers to watch. "Yes, I'm still working here," she said.

"I will be here in Hax Horobis for a few days. We're refueling and having one of our external antennas replaced. It took some damage on take off from Dorsii 7. So I thought I'd look you and Bumblebee up. See how the only English speakers on this side of the galaxy were doing."

"Thank you. That's kind of you. We actually saw your ship land yesterday and were wondering if it was the Third Horizon."

At this he smiled. "I'm hoping that I might take you two out to dinner one of these afternoons or evenings during my stay. I'm always in need of a little language practice."

Carly giggled. "Captain, your English is perfect."

"I didn't specify which language. Any chance you speak German?"

She giggled again and shook her head no.

"Mandarin?" he asked hopefully.

Again a negative. Though she knew full well at this point that he was being playful with her.

"Well perhaps then I should give you lessons."

"You're such a charmer."

"And you've left me in need of an excuse to ask you and Bumblebee out. So when are you two available?"

"We're off at 10:00, and then work again at 20:00, and off again at 30:00."

"How about 11:00, if you two don't have other plans?"

"Besides sleeping before work, no. What should I wear?"

"Oh, just something casual. I was thinking we'd go over to this one cafe I've always seen in the terminal but have never stepped into."

"All right then. We'll meet you in the lobby at 11:00, Captain."

Vaallo smiled. "Please, unless I'm wearing my rank insignia," he indicated his eye-stalks with a tentacle, "it's just Vaallo."

"In that case, we'll meet you in the lobby at 11:00, Vaallo."

He took her hand and gave it a little hug in a spiraling tentacle and then departed, shuffling out on his pedes. Carly went back to the dryer she'd been working on, the others all smiling at her. "Sabt!" Cheshi laughed and pulled a large tuft of lint out of Carly's hair in a motherly fashion. "Charli sabt," she said smiling, and then tittered out a string of Taliseet of which she couldn't make out more than a few words. 'Sabt' she knew as well. It was the word for 'good.'

-o-o-o-o-o-

The three sat in a modest restaurant in the spaceport terminal, Carly trying not to stare too much at the act of Vaallo eating a salad. It wasn't exactly cannibalism, but there was some vague notion of it there. He'd pick up a leaf of the lettucy stuff with the wooden tongs and place it into his mouth, a wide orifice set below his eyestalks. Two pairs of small, specialized tentacles set at each side of the mouth assisted with the stuffing of the lettuce inside, where behind closed lips he appeared to chew it. Like most everything about him, she found the process as fascinating as it was monstrous.

And yes, she did find him fascinating. If she closed her eyes and listened to him talk, there in her imagination she saw a cultured, educated man with a slight French accent, greying hair on his temples, an unwavering confidence, and an indomitable enthusiasm for life. But on opening them again, instead of the handsome older man, there was a very large sentient aloe vera plant feeding upon the sundered remains of a distant cousin.

Bumblebee, sitting across the table from the captain, was in a very chatty mood. "So we managed to contact home, and we have been sending messages back and forth through the telegraph office."

"They must miss you a lot," Vaallo said.

"They do. The war goes on without me, and I feel bad for not being there beside them."

"A war? What war?" Vaallo looked surprised.

Bumblebee explained about his home planet and the ancient, seemingly endless conflict that raged between the two factions, a war that had all but destroyed Cybertron and was becoming a growing threat to Earth, a war that could possibly only end with the annihilation of all Cybertronians, save for the few who had been scattered to the stars.

Vaallo looked concerned. "I had no idea that's what your kind were doing on Earth. And I had no idea you were a soldier."

"I've kept it quiet. I didn't think I'd be able to find a job here if I mentioned it. And I'm not exactly a front-liner," he said with a laugh, lifting his arms and looking down at himself. "I joined the Autobot faction because I agreed with what they said and I wanted to work against what the Decepticons stood for."

"I see," said Vaallo, stuffing another ruffled leaf into his mouth. "Well, in that case, you should enjoy your time here. It must be a nice break from the fighting and deprivations you're used to."

Bumblebee sighed. "I miss my compatriots, but I _am_ enjoying my time here." He smiled briefly at Carly next to him. "Instead of a pistol I have a scrub brush. Instead of watching for attacks, I watch for hotel guests. I don't even have to wear my outer plating."

"We still want to go home though," Carly continued. "I miss my friends and my parents, and I've got more classes to take."

"So that's what keeps us going. We figured out that we'll have to work about six to nine months on Horobis to earn the money to get home, and once we have the money, it will take us four to eight months to make the journey."

"That long?" Vaallo questioned, looking a bit stunned.

"Yes. We were shocked when we first found out, but we've gotten over it. By the grace of God we ended up here in the blink of an eye. By his curse it will take us over a year to get home," Carly sighed.

"But at least we will be able to get back to Earth. That gives us a goal to work toward." He took Carly's hand and squeezed it in solidarity.

"I understand," said Vaallo with genuine sympathy. "Your family must miss you terribly," he said to Carly specifically.

"They do. The Autobots contacted my parents and let them know, a week after I disappeared, and again when we got a message home." Here, she smiled up at Bumblebee. "They assured my folks that I was being looked after by capable hands. I'm sure they've calmed down by now."

"How much will it cost to get home? If you don't mind my asking."

"About fifty-three hundred jil...each." Bumblebee told him with a sigh.

"Goodness! That much?" No wonder you two will be working so long."

"I know, but it could be a lot worse, and we're trying to enjoy our time here," Carly supplied enthusiastically. "We went to the wreck of the Jancis Jo yesterday, and the Grand Canyon a couple of weeks ago." She leaned toward him. "Next week we're going to see the Layered Canyons. And we decided that we have to see the Gardens of Alishar before we leave, even though that means taking a week off of work."

At this Vaallo smiled. "Such tourists you are. So it's a working vacation away from the war."

The waiter came, cleared away their empty plates and then offered dessert and drinks, which Vaallo insisted they have. And over this final course, Carly and Bumblebee told Vaallo of their time at the Jancis Jo. Bumblebee pulled out his data pad and scrolled up the pictures he'd taken of the massive colonizing ship that had crashed on Horobis three centuries ago after a reactor breach. And after the meal, Vaallo paid the bill and they headed back to the Garden Paradise Hotel.

"Bumblebee. Carly. I would like to do two things for you,m" Vaallo said as they walked slowly back toward the hotel. He did not move quickly on his short pedes.

"Vaallo, you've just taken us out for a meal. We're already in your debt," Bumblebee said.

"Then call me selfish in my kindness. I presume you have this shift off tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"In that case tomorrow I should like to take you two to the Gardens of Alishar. I've never seen them myself, and this would be a good opportunity for it."

The two both looked at him blankly. "You'd take us there? Tomorrow?"

"But it's on the other side of Horobis," Bumblebee reminded him.

"I have a private shuttle. We'd be there and back in plenty of time for work, and you're welcome to sleep on the way. And Carly, if I may be so bold, I think I might be able to obtain better paying work for you, if you would be willing to allow me to."

"But I can't speak more than a few words of Pelagian or Taliseet," she said.

"Not to worry," he smiled as they came to the entrance of the hotel. "I'll be off again now, and I'll see you two tomorrow at 11:00 again, shall I?"

Stunned by the captain's generosity, the two could only nod.

"Very good then. I'll meet you here tomorrow at 11:00. Be prepared for a long day at the gardens. Though I may see you at the baths later," he said to Bumblebee.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Just after 30:00, Bumblebee eagerly rushed back to the room to await Carly's return from the laundry. "Carly Carly Carly!" he gasped excitedly. "Put on that party dress and some makeup! Vaallo's taking us out again!"

"Again? He just took us out today, and he's taking us out tomorrow too."

"I know. He wants to take you somewhere for a job interview."

She cocked an eyebrow. "In my party gown?"

"That's what he said. He said to wear something pretty and sexy and to put on some make-up."

Carly was puzzled. What sort of job interview required dressing up like she was going to a party? "Well, all right."

As she dressed, Bumblebee located Vashi and begged her to come over and put on Carly's cosmetics for her, which she did. Though she'd abandoned Bumblebee for another mech, and then abandoned that one for another two weeks after, she was still on speaking terms with the washbot, and still swapped favors with him. And when she asked what the occasion was, she was most surprised and delighted.

"Tell her to hold her head high, to move slowly and gracefully, and to walk lightly," was the lizardess' advice.

Bumblebee translated to Carly, causing her to wonder even more.

They met Vaallo at the hotel entrance at 32:00, and together they walked two blocks toward the spaceport, stopping in front of a place called the Rose Beauty Saloon. They'd passed it many times, and Carly had noted the pictures on the sign out front displaying a selection of lovely women of several races dressed in colorful yet rather revealing outfits. She'd assumed it was a brothel or at least a strip club. Vaallo laughed when Carly hesitated and explained. "It's a bit classier than that," he assured her.

"What is it?"

"It's what we call a 'ring bar.' A place to relax and have a drink and watch beautiful creatures dance."

Suddenly it hit Carly what she would be interviewing for—why he'd had her dress up so prettily. "I'm not a dancer," she protested.

"Smile and move gracefully and soon you will be," grinned the captain. "And you'll be making five times what you do folding sheets and towels in that laundry room."

She looked at Bumblebee, and he looked back at her. "It's worth a try."

-o-o-o-o-o-

Inside, Vaallo found a table for them and went to speak with the manager. The two sat watching one of the dancers perform, a blue-scaled Taliseet female. She was perched upon a pedestal at the center of a round counter, dressed in something drapey and diaphanous, dancing to a slow exotic tune. Above the pedestal hung a ring on a pole, to which she clung for balance. And while Carly had imagined a strip club, it was actually fairly tame and the dancing was more elegant than titillating.

Vaallo returned shortly with an older Taliseet man, who greeted Carly kindly and pulled her to her feet, eyeing her up and down. He was pleased by her beautiful yet alien appearance, and soon insisted that she attempt to dance for him.

"But I don't know how to dance like that," Carly protested after Vaallo explained.

"You can. Remember when you were at the party on the Third Horizon, and you danced with me, hanging from my hand? That's all you have to do."

"You can do it, Carly," Bumblebee said encouragingly. "Just imagine yourself a ballerina and you'll do great."

"Are you sure?"

Vaallo grinned at her. "If I wasn't sure, would I have brought you here?"

This gave her confidence, and the club owner led her to another pedestal in the back of the bar, motioned for her to remove her sandals, and then held her hand as she climbed up onto the pedestal. Nervously, she began to dance, improvising some swaying moves and gesturing along with the music. She watched the other dancer on the central pedestal, copying her moves as best she could and trying to look attractive while doing so. As awkward as she felt, five times the earnings was very tempting, especially as they needed so much money for the journey home.

-o-o-o-o-o-

At 11:00 Captain Vaallo appeared in the lobby, his insignia on, and with him another high-ranking Yiaan and another without any insignia. "Bumblebee. Carly. I'd like you to meet Lieutenant Daapaan and our chief gardener, Cuurllen." The two nodded their eyestalks as they were introduced. "I hope you don't mind my inviting them along, but I knew they'd want to come as well."

"Of course not. You're the one who has arranged this trip. We're just fortunate enough that you'd be kind enough to take us," said Bumblebee.

"Do either of you speak English?" Carly asked the two other guests on Vaallo's excursion.

"I do," answered the Lieutenant with a slow blink of his eyes. "But Cuurllen doesn't, which is for the best which means he cannot bore you to death with his talk of gardens and horticulture and plant types and all those things."

They all laughed, save Cuurllen, who blinked in puzzlement, wondering what had been said. He hissed a question to Daapaan, and groaned when he received the answer.

-o-o-o-o-o-

The party made their way out to the parking area behind the hotel, where a gleaming white shuttle waited—the Captain's private craft. Bumblebee and Carly were again impressed. Inside, they settled in for the journey, the captain taking the helm. He lifted off and the spaceport fell away, and soon they were cruising at mid-altitude across the deserts. After a while, Carly tucked down for a nap, curling up into one of the padded berths in the back cabin. But Bumblebee stayed up front and continued talking with the others. Eventually the gardener fell asleep on one of the padded chairs of the lounge-like area behind the helm. Bumblebee drifted into recharge himself shortly thereafter.

A couple hours later, they were landing in the city of Alishar and boarding a taxi that would take them directly to the gardens. Carly was excited and held onto one of Vaallo's hands on the seat next to him. "We saw pictures of the gardens and decided we had to come, even if it would cost a lot. But thanks to you, we just have to pay admission."

Vaallo chuckled. "No admission. Today is a free day for you."

"A free day?"

"Yes, today is "alien robots and pretty human girls get in for free' day."

Bumblebee and Carly gave him a look that suggested he was teasing them.

Daapaan chuckled. "He's buying the tickets. No one argues. I have orders to enforce that."

"But Captain, we have money to buy our own tickets."

"Miss Carly," said Daapaan, narrowing his eyes at her. "I have orders to stop anyone from arguing with his decision." The lieutenant held up all four of his hands and spread the fingers. "Don't make me use these."

Carly drew back, but to her relief Daapaan chuckled again and leaned back against the large taxi's seat.

The gardens were everything the pictures had promised. They sprawled seemingly endlessly alongside a river, which watered the grounds through an intricate network of irrigation channels. In this desert climate, this was a paradise of verdant plantings and blooming flowers—a great, glorified version of the courtyard at the hotel. Large rocks and sculptures complemented the plantings. Paths meandered in all directions, promising vistas of peaceful pools and sprays of blossoms around each turn. Cuurllen soon wandered off on his own, while the other four explored at a leisurely place, marveling at the beauty of Horobis' Eden. Carly was amused by the fact that their host was a plant, and here he was visiting other plants. She decided it was akin to her own species going to stare at apes in a zoo.

But Vaallo and Daapaan were obviously enjoying it, and the two chatted to each other in Yinnic as they read the labels for the plantings and admired what they saw. The greenhouses were of great interest—they contained groupings of plants taken from other planets. In time they had lunch at a cafe, Vaallo again picking up the tab. Afterward, Daapaan took Bumblebee out to see the "Garden of Metal" where a collection of ore-trees from Ferron Twelve had been planted, while Vaallo took Carly to see the Yinnic garden.

"Is it really like your home?" she asked as they entered the large greenhouse.

"It is. Only prettier." She explored ahead, forging along the pathways that wound through thick groves of trees with leafy trunks and enormous colorful flowers that made sunflowers look tiny and uninteresting. The air was thick and humid, and at times water sprayed out from sprinklers overhead to simulate rain. Vaallo followed behind her, delighting in watching her discover things so familiar to him.

"Your planet must be very wet," she said as she took shelter beneath one of the large stationary umbrellas designed to shelter visitors during the artificial showers. But Vaallo stood in the rain, smiling and shuddering happily beneath it.

"It is." And then he sighed. "It's been a long time since I was home. Though admittedly, I was raised in a drier area of the planet. It only rained like this half of the year."

"And the rest of the year?"

"It only rained occasionally." His eyes suddenly hinted at mischief. "Here, watch this. This is what we did in the dry months when the rains were scarce." He raised his tentacles upwards and aligned them into a tight fan. The falling droplets caught in his limbs and rolled down to his body, where the rivulets converged and rolled into his mouth.

"Oh! That's clever!"

"That's evolution." Vaallo returned his limbs to their normal position. "Rainwater is prized above all other liquids," he said with a hint of nostalgia in his voice. "Remember that bottle of wine? What you do with fermented grape juice we do the same with rainwater. Bottle it and date it and sell it for a small fortune."

She laughed in response.

When the indoor weather let up shortly, they continued on through the greenhouse.

"Carly?"

"Yes Captain?" He had worn his rank insignia for the outing.

"After this, I'm taking you shopping. You're going to need some dancewear."

She turned and gasped. "The ring bar owner will hire me?"

"He liked your looks and you can dance well enough. And the language thing is not a problem. He'll take you for the 26:00 to 34:00 shift at first. When you've had more experience, you'll be able to get more hours. But you should be able to work in the laundry for the first quarter shift, and then work at the ring bar at night."

"Oh Vaallo! Thank you!" She threw herself into his mass and hugged him appreciatively. "Thank you, thank you. Oh gosh, I'm getting all wet!" she laughed and pulled back, finding the front of her shirt soaked through from the artificial rainwater on the Yiaan's skin.

Vaallo smiled. "I know you're very independent, but I'm going to buy you three outfits for dancing in. Any more than that, and you'll have to purchase them yourself."

"You'll buy me clothes for it? Will Daapaan threaten me if I argue?"

Vaallo laughed boldly. "Yes. He will. He takes his orders seriously." He enveloped her in his tentacles again and gave her a quick tight hug, and then released her. "Now lets go outside and let you dry out before your guardian sees you and refuses to let me take you out unchaperoned again."

-o-o-o-o-o-

Leaving the gardens and Cuurllen behind, the four went out to a shopping area where there was a dancewear store. Daapaan and Bumblebee wandered off to do their own shopping, while Vaallo took Carly in to find her something to wear for ring dancing. A salesclerk was drafted, and within an hour Carly had three complete outfits to dance in, a mostly sheer red one, a sparkling green one, and a shimmering purple one. Makeup and jewelry was purchased as well, along with six pairs of the leather slippers necessary for ring dancing.

Meeting up later and seeing the costumes, Bumblebee was excited about the new job, and not just for the money she had the potential to earn. "You'll look great up there on those pedestals," he said. "I wish you could have seen the dancers on Cybertron during the Golden Age. They were amazing. And you'll be amazing too," he gushed.

"I'll do my best," Carly said modestly.

"Bumblebee's right. You'll look great," said Vaallo confidently.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Exhausted, the human and the robot slept all the way back to Hax Horobis, the three Yiaan trading off stints at the helm of the shuttle. Carly smiled even in her sleep. Vaallo had been so sweet to her. And she hoped that someday she could repay him for his kindness.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"**Stung" continues in Chapter 12: "New Employment" **

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Author Notes**

**Spike's Clothes** – When I was newly married years ago and we were short of things we needed, I sometimes ended up stealing his undies to wear when I ran out of panties. And I frequently wore his once-worn shirts to work as well since they were hardly dirty after a day at his office.

**Fifty-three hundred jil** – A lot of money... I've been taking it to be roughly about $15,000.

**Rose Beauty Saloon –** A nod to Carly's first episode in the G1 cartoon. The "Rose Beauty Salon" is seen next door to "Robots Arcade."

**Jancis Jo** – Taken from one of the short stories in Stewart Cowley's "Spacewreck," the book being a lot of inspiration for some of the segments in this story. The Jancis Jo was a huge colonizing ship that crashed onto a desert planet, the radiation from the reactor breach killing all of the settlers aboard. The ship, long forgotten, was rediscovered centuries later by a planetary survey team.

**Chief Gardener** – His name is taken from a friend of mine, who when we met, had a giant pet mushroom he grew in the hot-tub room and babied dearly.

**The Gardens of Alishar** – I love botanical gardens, and I've roughly based these off of the lovely Kew Gardens outside of London.

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


End file.
